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

Abate Sufficiently For Milton

To Return To Town With Safety Until About February In The Following

Year,  Leaving,  It Has Been Asserted,  A Record Of Himself At Chalfont In

The Shape Of A Sonnet On The Pestilence Regarded As A Judgment For The

Sins Of The King,  Written With A Diamond On A Window-Pane--As If The

Blind Poet Could Write Even With A Pen! The Verses,  Nevertheless,  May

Not Impossibly Be Genuine: They Are Almost Too Miltonic For An Imitator

Between 1665 And 1738,  When They Were First Published.

 

The Public Calamity Of 1666 Affected Milton More Nearly Than That Of

1665. The Great Fire Came Within A Quarter Of A Mile Of His House,  And

Though He Happily Escaped The Fate Of Shirley,  And Did Not Make One Of

The Helpless Crowd Of The Homeless And Destitute,  His Means Were

Seriously Abridged By The Destruction Of The House In Bread Street Where

He Had First Seen The Light,  And Which He Had Retained Through All The

Chapter 10 Pg 96

Vicissitudes Of His Fortunes. He Could Not,  Probably,  Have Published

"Paradise Lost" Without The Co-Operation Of Samuel Symmons. Symmons's

Endeavours To Push The Sale Of The Book Make The Bibliographical History

Of The First Edition Unusually Interesting. There Were At Least Nine

Different Issues,  As Fresh Batches Were Successively Bound Up,  With

Frequent Alterations Of Title-Page As Reasonable Cause Became Apparent

To The Strategic Symmons. First Milton's Name Is Given In Full,  Then He

Is Reduced To Initials,  Then Restored; Symmons's Own Name,  At First

Suppressed,  By And By Appears; His Agents Are Frequently Changed; And

The Title Is Altered To Suit The Year Of Issue,  That The Book May Seem A

Novelty. The Most Important Of All These Alterations Is One In Which The

Author Must Have Actively Participated--The Introduction Of The Argument

Which,  A Hundred And Forty Years Afterwards,  Was To Cause Harriet

Martineau To Take Up "Paradise Lost" At The Age Of Seven,  And Of The

Note On The Metre Conveying "A Reason Of That Which Stumbled Many,  Why

This Poem Rimes Not." Partly,  Perhaps,  By Help Of These Devices,

Certainly Without Any Aid From Advertising Or Reviewing,  The Impression

Of Thirteen Hundred Copies Was Disposed Of Within Twenty Months,  As

Attested By Milton's Receipt For His Second Five Pounds,  April 26,

1669--Two Years,  Less One Day,  Since The Signature Of The Original

Contract. The First Printed Notice Appeared After The Edition Had Been

Entirely Sold. It Was By Milton's Nephew,  Edward Phillips,  And Was

Contained In A Little Latin Essay Appended To Buchlerus's "Treasury Of

Poetical Phrases."

 

      "John Milton,  In Addition To Other Most Elegant Writings Of His,

      Both In English And Latin,  Has Recently Published 'Paradise Lost,'

      A Poem Which,  Whether We Regard The Sublimity Of The Subject,  Or

      The Combined Pleasantness And Majesty Of The Style,  Or The

      Sublimity Of The Invention,  Or The Beauty Of Its Images And

      Descriptions Of Nature,  Will,  If I Mistake Not,  Receive The Name

      Of Truly Heroic,  Inasmuch As By The Suffrages Of Many Not

      Unqualified To Judge,  It Is Reputed To Have Reached The Perfection

      Of This Kind Of Poetry."

 

The "Many Not Unqualified" Undoubtedly Included The First Critic Of The

Age,  Dryden. Lord Buckhurst Is Also Named As An Admirer--Pleasing

Anecdotes Respecting The Practical Expression Of His Admiration,  And Of

Sir John Denham's,  Seem Apocryphal.

 

While "Paradise Lost" Was Thus Slowly Upbearing Its Author To The

Highest Heaven Of Fame,  Milton Was Achieving Other Titles To Renown,  One

Of Which He Deemed Nothing Inferior. We Shall Remember Ellwood's Hint

That He Might Find Something To Say About Paradise Found,  And The "Muse"

Into Which It Cast Him. When,  Says The Quaker,  He Waited Upon Milton

After The Latter's Return To London,  Milton "Showed Me His Second Poem,

Called 'Paradise Regained,' And In A Pleasant Tone Said To Me,  'This Is

Owing To You; For You Put It Into My Head By The Question You Put To Me

At Chalfont; Which Before I Had Not Thought Of.'" Ellwood Does Not Tell

Us The Date Of This Visit,  And Phillips May Be Right In Believing That

"Paradise Regained" Was Entirely Composed After The Publication Of

"Paradise Lost"; But It Seems Unlikely That The Conception Should Have

Slumbered So Long In Milton's Mind,  And The Most Probable Date Is

Between Michaelmas,  1665,  And Lady-Day,  1666. Phillips Records That

Chapter 10 Pg 97

Milton Could Never Hear With Patience "Paradise Regained" "Censured To

Be Much Inferior" To "Paradise Lost." "The Most Judicious," He Adds,

Agreed With Him,  While Allowing That "The Subject Might Not Afford Such

Variety Of Invention," Which Was Probably All That The Injudicious

Meant. There Is No External Evidence Of The Date Of His Next And Last

Poem,  "Samson Agonistes," But Its Development Of Miltonic Mannerisms

Would Incline Us To Assign It To The Latest Period Possible. The Poems

Were Licensed By Milton's Old Friend,  Thomas Tomkyns,  July 2,  1670,  But

Did Not Appear Until 1671. They Were Published In The Same Volume,  But

With Distinct Title-Pages And Paginations; The Publisher Was John

Starkey; The Printer An Anonymous "J.M.," Who Was Far From Equalling

Symmons In Elegance And Correctness.

 

"Paradise Regained" Is In One Point Of View The Confutation Of A

Celebrated But Eccentric Definition Of Poetry As A "Criticism Of Life."

If This Were True It Would Be A Greater Work Than "Paradise Lost," Which

Must Be Violently Strained To Admit A Definition Not Wholly Inapplicable

To The Minor Poem. If,  Again,  Wordsworth And Coleridge Are Right In

Pronouncing "Paradise Regained" The Most Perfect Of Milton's Works In

Point Of Execution,  The Proof Is Afforded That Perfect Execution Is Not

The Chief Test Of Poetic Excellence. Whatever These Great Men May Have

Propounded In Theory,  It Cannot Be Believed That They Would Not Have

Rather Written The First Two Books Of "Paradise Lost" Than Ten Such

Poems As "Paradise Regained," And Yet They Affirm That Milton's Power Is

Even More Advantageously Exhibited In The Latter Work Than In The Other.

There Can Be No Solution Except That Greatness In Poetry Depends Mainly

Upon The Subject,  And That The Subject Of "Paradise Lost" Is Infinitely

The Finer. Perhaps This Should Not Be. Perhaps To "The Visual Nerve

Purged With Euphrasy And Rue" The Spectacle Of The Human Soul

Successfully Resisting Supernatural Temptation Would Be More Impressive

Than The Material Sublimities Of "Paradise Lost," But Ordinary Vision

Sees Otherwise. Satan "Floating Many A Rood" On The Sulphurous Lake,  Or

"Up To The Fiery Concave Towering High," Or Confronting Death At The

Gate Of Hell,  Kindles The Imagination With Quite Other Fire Than The

Sage Circumspection And The Meek Fortitude Of The Son Of God. "The

Reason," Says Blake,  "Why Milton Wrote In Fetters When He Wrote Of

Angels And God,  And At Liberty When Of Devils And Hell,  Is Because He

Was A True Poet,  And Of The Devil's Party Without Knowing It." The

Passages In "Paradise Regained" Which Most Nearly Approach The

Magnificence Of "Paradise Lost," Are Those Least Closely Connected With

The Proper Action Of The Poem,  The Episodes With Which Milton's

Consummate Art And Opulent Fancy Have Veiled The Bareness Of His

Subject. The Description Of The Parthian Military Expedition; The

Picture,  Equally Gorgeous And Accurate,  Of The Roman Empire At The

Zenith Of Its Greatness; The Condensation Into A Single Speech Of All

That Has Made Greece Dear To Humanity--These Are The Shining Peaks Of

The Regained "Paradise," Marvels Of Art And Eloquence,  Yet,  Unlike

"Paradise Lost," Beautiful Rather Than Awful. The Faults Inherent In The

Theme Cannot Be Imputed To The Poet. No Human Skill Could Make The

Second Adam As Great An Object Of Sympathy As The First: It Is Enough,

And It Is Wonderful,  That Spotless Virtue Should Be So Entirely Exempt

From Formality And Dulness. The Baffled Satan,  Beaten At His Own

Weapons,  Is Necessarily A Much Less Interesting Personage Than The

Chapter 10 Pg 98

Heroic Adventurer Of "Paradise Lost." Milton Has Done What Can Be Done

By Softening Satan's Reprobate Mood With Exquisite Strokes Of Pathos:--

 

                        "Though I Have Lost

    Much Lustre Of My Native Brightness,  Lost

    To Be Beloved Of God,  I Have Not Lost

    To Love,  At Least Contemplate And Admire

    What I See Excellent In Good Or Fair,

    Or Virtuous; I Should So Have Lost All Sense."

 

These Words,  Though Spoken With A Deceitful Intention,  Express A Truth.

Milton's Satan Is A Long Way From Goethe's Mephistopheles. Profound,

Too,  Is The Pathos Of--

 

   "I Would Be At The Worst,  Worst Is My Best,

    My Harbour,  And My Ultimate Repose."

 

The General Sobriety Of The Style Of "Paradise Regained" Is A Fertile

Theme For The Critics. It Is,  Indeed,  Carried To The Verge Of Baldness;

Frigidity,  Used By Pattison,  Is Too Strong A Word. This Does Not Seem To

Be Any Token Of A Decay Of Poetical Power. As Writers Advance In Life

Their Characteristics Usually Grow Upon Them,  And Develop Into

Mannerisms. In "Paradise Regained," And Yet More Markedly In "Samson

Agonistes," Milton Seems To Have Prided Himself On Showing How

Independent He Could Be Of The Ordinary Poetical Stock-In-Trade. Except

In His Splendid Episodical Descriptions He Seeks To Impress By The Massy

Substance Of His Verse. It Is A Great Proof Of The Essentially Poetical

Quality Of His Mind That Though He Thus Often Becomes Jejune,  He Is

Never Prosaic. He Is Ever Unmistakably The Poet,  Even When His Beauties

Are Rather Those Of The Orator Or The Moralist. The Following Sound

Remark,  For Instance,  Would Not Have Been Poetry In Pope; It Is Poetry

In Milton:--

 

                              "Who Reads

    Incessantly,  And To His Reading Brings Not

    A Spirit And Judgment Equal Or Superior

    (And What He Brings What Need He Elsewhere Seek?)

    Uncertain And Unsettled Still Remains?

    Deep Versed In Books And Shallow In Himself."

 

Perhaps,  Too,  The Sparse Flowers Of Pure Poetry Are More Exquisite From

Their Contrast With The General Austerity:--

 

   "The Field,  All Iron,  Cast A Gleaming Brown."

 

                                    "Morning Fair

    Came Forth With Pilgrim Steps In Amice Gray."

 

Poetic Magic These,  And Milton Is Still Milton.

 

"I Have Lately Read His Samson,  Which Has More Of The Antique Spirit

Than Any Production Of Any Other Modern Poet. He Is Very Great." Thus

Goethe To Eckermann,  In His Old Age. The Period Of Life Is Noticeable,

For "Samson Agonistes" Is An Old Man's Poem As Respects Author And