"Come, cease lamentation, lift it up no more;for verily these things stand fast;"
so Milton ends the long debate of his poem, not with victory, but with silence—
"He, unobserved,Home to his mother's house private returned."
It is indeed just the opposite in one way of the conclusion ofParadise Lost. The man and woman who had fallen before the Tempter had no home to return to: they must seek a new "place of rest" elsewhere in the new world that was before them. The Man who {249} had vanquished him could go back quietly to the home of his childhood. But the contrast is external, the likeness essential. For the first man as well as the second there is an appointed place of rest and a Providence to guide: the two poems can both end on the same note of that peace which follows upon the right understanding of all great experiences.
This, which is only implied in his earlier poems, is almost expressly set forth in the last of all Milton's words, the already quoted conclusion of Samson—
"His servants He, with new acquistOf true experience from this great event,With peace and consolation hath dismissed,And calm of mind, all passion spent."
Milton was a passionate man who lived in passionate times. Neither his passions nor those of the men of his day are of very much matter to us now. But the art in which he "spent" them, in which, that is to say, he embodied, transcended and glorified them, till through it he and we alike attain to consolation and calm, is an eternal possession not only of the English race but of the whole world.
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The literature that in one way or another deals with Milton is, of course, immense. His name fills more than half of one of the volumes of the great British Museum Catalogue, more than sixteen pages being devoted to the single item ofParadise Lost. They afford perhaps the most striking of all proofs of the universality of his genius; for they include translations into no fewer than eighteen languages, many of which possess a large choice of versions. Into more than a very small fraction of such a vast field it is obviously impossible to enter here. Only a few notes can be given, under the four headings of Poetry, Prose, Biography and Criticism.
Of the poetry, it may be worth saying, though MSS. hardly come within the scope of a brief bibliography of this sort, that a manuscript, mainly in the handwriting of Milton himself and containing many of his early poems, is preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The printed copies, of course, begin with those published in his own lifetime. They contain practically the whole of his poetry. The most important are the volume containing his early poems issued in 1645,Paradise Lostwhich first appeared in 1667,Paradise RegainedandSamson Agonisteswhich followed in 1671, and a re-issue in 1673, with additions, of the volume of his minor poems already printed in 1646. The first complete edition wasThe Poetical Works of Mr. John Milton, issued by Jacob Tonson in 1695.
So much for the bare text. Annotation naturally soon followed. The earliest commentator was Patrick Hume who published an edition of the poems with notes onParadise Lostin 1695. But the most famous, though also least important, of Milton's early critics was the greatest of English scholars, Richard Bentley, who in 1732 issued an edition ofParadise Lostin which whole passages were relegated to the margin as the spurious interpolations of an imaginary editor. Such a book is, of course, merely a curiosity connecting two {251} great names. The real beginning in the work of editing Milton as a classic should be edited was made by Thomas Newton, afterwards Bishop of Bristol, who in 1749 brought out an edition ofParadise Lost, "with Notes of Various Authors," and followed it in 1752 with a similar volume includingParadise Regainedand the minor poems. Newton's work was often reprinted, and remained the standard edition till it was superseded by that of the Rev. H. J. Todd which first appeared in 1801. The final issue of Todd is that of 1826 in six volumes which, in spite of many notes which are defective, many which are antiquated and some which are superfluous, may still claim to be the best library edition of Milton. Among the best of those which have appeared since are Thomas Keightley's, published in 1859, which contains excellent notes, and Prof. David Masson's, which is the work of the most learned and devoted of all Milton's editors. Both of these have the advantage of Todd in some respects; Keightley in acuteness and penetration, Masson in completeness of knowledge. But no single editor's work can be a perfect substitute for avariorumedition like that of Todd, giving the comments and suggestions of many different minds. The most complete edition of Masson's work is the final library one in three volumes, 1890; there is also a convenient smaller issue, based on this, but omitting some of its editorial matter. It was last printed in three volumes 1893. It contains a Memoir, rather elaborate Introductions to all the poems, an Essay on Milton's English and Versification, and reduced Notes.
A text with Critical Notes by W. Aldis Wright was issued by the Cambridge University Press in one volume, 1903. The text of the earliest printed editions of the several poems was reprinted in 1900 in an edition prepared for the Clarendon Press by the Rev. H. C. Beeching.
It may be worth while adding that Milton's Latin and Italian poems were translated by the poet Cowper and printed in 1808 by his biographer, Hayley, in a beautiful quarto volume with designs by Flaxman. These translations are reprinted in the "Aldine" edition of Milton, 1826. Masson has also given translations of most of them in hisLife of Miltonand in his 1890 library edition of the Poems.
The Prose works were, of course, mostly issued as books or pamphlets in Milton's lifetime. They were collected by Toland in three volumesfolio, 1698. There are several more modern editions; as that published in 1806 in seven volumes {252} with aLifeby Charles Symmons; that of Pickering, who included them in his fine eight-volume edition.The Works of John Milton in Verse and Prose, Edited by John Mitford, 1851; and that in Bohn's Standard Library, in six volumes, edited, with some notes of a somewhat controversial character, by J. A. St. John, 1848. The first volume of a new edition edited by Sir Sidney Lee appeared in 1905. One of the most curious of the prose works, theDe Doctrina ChristianaorTreatise of Christian Doctrine, was not known till 1823, when it was discovered in the State Paper Office. It was edited, with an English translation, by the Rev. C. R. Sumner in 1825 and is included in Bohn's edition.
The earliest sources for the biography of Milton, outside his own works, are the account given in theFasti Oxoniensesof Anthony à Wood, 1691, theBrief Lives of John Aubrey, and the Life prefixed by the poet's nephew, Edward Phillips, to an edition of theLetters of State, printed in 1694. A very large number ofLives of Miltonhave been written since, based on these materials and those collected from a few other sources. The most famous and in some ways the best, in spite of its unfairness, is that of Johnson, to be found in hisLives of the Poets. The best short modern Life is Mark Pattison's masterly, though occasionally wilful, little book in the English Men of letters Series. For the library and for students all other biographies have been superseded by the great work of David Masson, who spared no labours to investigate every smallest detail of the life of Milton and to place the whole in the setting of an elaborate history of England in Milton's day. The value of the book is somewhat impaired by the very strong Puritan and anti-Cavalier partisanship of the writer; and its style suffers from an imitation of Carlyle. But nothing can seriously detract from the immense debt every student of Milton owes to the author of this monumental biography which appeared in seven volumes, 1859-1894.
An interesting critical discussion of the various portraits representing or alleged to represent Milton is prefixed to the Catalogue of the Exhibition held at Christ's College Cambridge during the Milton Tercentenary in 1908. It is by Dr. G. C. Williamson.
A poet at once so learned and so great as Milton inevitably invited criticism. The first and most generous of his critics {253} was his great rival Dryden, who, in a few words of the preface toThe State of Innocence, published the year after Milton's death, led the note of praise, which has been echoed ever since by speaking ofParadise Lostas "one of the greatest, most noble and most sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced." The next great name in the list is that of Addison, who contributed a series of papers on Milton to theSpectatorin 1712. Like all criticism except the work of the supreme masters, they are written too exclusively from the point of view of their own day to retain more than a small fraction of their value after two hundred years have passed. But they are of considerable historical interest and may still be read with pleasure, like everything written by Addison. A less sympathetic but finer piece of work is the critical part of Johnson's famousLife. It is full of crudities of every sort, such as the notorious remark that "no man could have fancied that he readLycidaswith pleasure had he not known the author"; and perhaps nothing Johnson over wrote displayed more nakedly the narrow limits of his appreciation of poetry. But, in spite of all its defects, it exhibits its writer's great gifts; and its absolute and unshrinking sincerity, its half-reluctant utterance of some of the truest praise ever spoken of Milton, its profound knowledge of the way in which the human mind approaches both literature and life, will always preserve it as one of the most interesting criticisms which Milton has provoked. Johnson's friend, Thomas Warton, in his edition of the minor poems issued in 1785, led the way to an understanding of much in Milton to which Johnson and his school were entirely blind. This movement has continued ever since, and is seen in the immense influence Milton had upon the poets of the nineteenth century, especially upon Wordsworth and Keats; an influence of exactly the opposite sort to that which he exercised with such disastrous effect upon many poets of the century immediately succeeding his own. It is also seen in the finer intelligence of the critical studies of his work. These are far too many to mention here. Among the best are Hazlitt's Lecture on Shakspeare and Milton in hisLectures on the English Poets; Matthew Arnold's speech at the unveiling of a Milton memorial, printed in the second series of hisEssays in Criticism; Sir Walter Raleigh's volume,Milton, published in 1900, andThe Epic, by Lascelles Abercrombie, 1914, which is full of fine and suggestive criticism of Milton.Milton's Prosody by Robert Bridges, 1901, is the best study of the metre and scansion of Milton's later poems, especially ofParadise Lost.
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Abercrombie, L., 136-7, 253Absalom and Achitophel, 105Achilles in Scyros, 246 Addison, Joseph, 77, 253Adonais, 125Ad Patrem, 39-40.Aeneid, The, 150, 175, 196 Aeschylus, 245 À Kempis, Thomas, 147 Aldersgate Street, 46All for Love, 243Allegro, L', 41, 70, 93, 99, 106et sqq., 123, 239 Anglesey, Earl of, 72, 82 Annesley, Arthur, 72 Aquinas, Thomas, 157Arbuthnot, Epistle to, 105Arcades, 41, 42Arcadia, 58Areopagitica, 44, 49, 64 Arianism, 204 Ariosto, 153 Aristotle, 86, 200 Arnold Matthew, 164, 253 Arthurian Epic (planned), 45, 148-9At a Solemn Music, 13, 42, 97, 100, 103, 147 Athens, 205-6, 209 Aubrey, John, 29, 252
Barbican, the, 54Baroni, Leonora, 44-5Barrow, Samuel, 82Beeching, Rev. H. C., 251Bentley, Richard, 250Bibliography, 250-3Blake, Admiral, 57Bohn's Standard Library, 252Bow Church, 25Bread Street, 24, 75Bridges, Robert, 26, 108, 222, 223, 246, 253Brief Lives, 252Buckingham, Duke of, 58Byron, Lord, 90
Cambridge, 28, 29, 30, 31-7, 39, 42, 85, 120, 121, 124, 250, 252Carlyle, Thomas, 262Caroline, Queen, 77Charles I, 11, 28, 58, 59, 60, 63, 64, 67, 71, 72, 86Charles II, 47, 60, 65, 71, 73, 82, 86Chaucer, Geoffrey, 90, 111Christina, Queen of Sweden, 60Christ's College, Cambridge, 28, 29, 120, 121, 124, 252Clarendon, Earl of, 73Clarges, Sir Thomas, 72Coleridge, S. T., 206Comus, 13, 41, 42, 95, 100, 110, 112-13et sqq., 128, 242Constable, 135Coriolanus, 85Cowper, William, 69, 251Criticisms, 252-3Cromwell, Oliver, 55, 57, 63, 64, 67, 68, 69, 71, 133, 139, 176
Dante, 10, 11-12, 33, 120, 153-7Daphnaïda, 125 Davenant, William, 72Defensio Regia, 60, 61Defensio Secunda, 61 De Quincey, Thomas, 96 Diodati, Charles, 42, 124, 125Divina Commedia, La, 120, 157 Divorce pamphlets, 50et sqq.Doctrina Christiana, De, 252 Dorset, Earl of, 81 Dowland, Robert, 28 Drayton, Michael, 124 Drummond, William, 124, 135 Dryden, John, 80-2, 90, 103, 104-5, 117, 241, 253
Eikon Basilike, the, 57-8Eikonoklastes, 58, 61Electra, The, 245 Elizabeth, Queen, 85English Men of Letters Series, 252Epic, The, 253 Epigrams, Latin, on La Baroni, 45Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, 36, 37, 97, 103Epitaphium Damonis, 124Essays in Criticism, 253 Euripides, 77, 82, 245Excursion, The, 136, 228-9
Faerie Queen, The, 115 Fairfax, General, 139, 171Faithful Shepherdess, The, 115Fasti Oxonienses, 252Faust, 196 Fire of London, 75 Flaxman, John, 251 Fletcher, John, 107, 115 Florence, 43, 44, 46 France, 43, 46, 59
Galileo, 44, 45Gerusalemme Conquistata(Tasso), 45Gibbons, Orlando, 28Goethe, J. W. von, 230, 244Gorges, Mrs., 125Grotius, Hugo, 43
Hamlet, 24, 243Hampden, John, 171Hayley, William, 251Hazlitt, William, 253Hippolytus, 245History of Britain, 78Homer, 77, 82, 84, 89, 152, 153, 155, 171, 230Horace, 69Horton, 37, 40, 41, 42, 111Hume, Patrick, 250
Iliad, The, 154, 155, 157, 162Imitation, The, of Christ, 147-8Indemnity, Act of, 72, 73, 74Independent Army, The, 55, 56Italian travels, 43-6
James I, 58Jebb, Prof., 242-3, 244Job, Book of, 21, 82Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 125, 126, 160, 162, 175, 194, 196, 206,207, 227, 252, 253Jones, Inigo, 16, 114Jonson, Ben, 114, 115
Keats, John, 79, 90, 102, 110, 125, 253Keightley, Thomas, 251King, Edward, 42, 91, 124, 125, 127, 128-31
Landor, Walter Savage, 132 Lawes, Henry, 41, 82, 91, 116, 119 Lawrence, Henry, 69-70, 133Lectures on the English Poets, 253 Lee, Sir Sidney, 252Letters of State, 252 Lives of Milton, 251, 252, 253Lives of the Poets, 252 London, 25, 49; fire of, 75 Long Parliament, 47, 63, 64, 171Lycidas, 13, 41, 42, 90, 91, 100, 106, 123et sqq.
Mackail, J. W., 94-5, 206, 211Manso, Giovanni, 45Marini, 45Marlowe, Christopher, 107Marvell, Andrew, 69, 73Massacres in Piedmont, sonnets on, 68, 133, 139, 140-1Masson, D., 24, 52, 68, 73, 75, 251Medea, The, 245Meredith, George, 134Milton, 253Milton's Prosody, 224, 253Milton's relations:—Daughters, 11, 54, 69, 75-77, 218Deborah, 77-8Father, 27, 29, 37, 38-40, 42, 43, 49, 54, 75Infant son, 76Mother, 40Nephews, 46, 54, 61, 70, 252Wives—First,seePowell, Mary.Second, 54, 69, 71Third, 54Mitford, John, 252Monk, General, 72Morley, Thomas, 28Morrice, —, 72Morus, 69
Napoleon, 9, 139Newbolt, Henry, 120Newton, Thomas, 251
Ode on the Nativity, 35-6, 37, 91, 93-4, 97, 98-103Odyssey, The, 162, 196Oedipus Coloneus, 237, 248Oedipus Tyrannus, 233, 238, 243On Attaining the Age of Twenty-three, sonnet, 91, 133On His Blindness, sonnet, 62-3, 133On the Death of a Fair Infant, 35, 97-9Orations, 34-5Othello, 150Ovid, 33, 77, 124
Pamphlets, 49, 56, 69, 71Paradise Lost, 13, 24, 25, 28, 44, 47, 55, 71, 78, 79,80, 82, 88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 97, 101, 104, 106, 112, 113,118, 120, 123, 125, 137, 142et sqq., 196, 197et sqq.,239, 240, 247, 248, 250, 251, 253Paradise Regained, 13, 24, 44, 78, 167, 196et sqq.,227, 248, 250, 251Passion, The, 103Pattison, Mark, 131, 132, 197, 252Penseroso, Il, 41, 70, 93, 100, 106et sqq., 239Persae, The, 245Petrarch, 33, 134, 135Phillips, Edward, 252Pickering, William, 252Pindar, 117Plato, 8, 9-10, 21, 111, 156Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, 115Poems, editions of, 250-1, 252Poetical Works, The, of Mr. John Milton, 250Pope, A., 85, 90, 91, 105, 222, 223Portraits, 252Powell family, 50, 53Powell, Mary, 50-4, 69, 71Prelude, The, 136, 228-9Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, 60, 61Prometheus the Fire-Giver, 246Prometheus Unbound, 102Prometheus Vinctus, 21, 243, 245Prose Works, 47et sqq., 251-2Psalms, the, 139-40; paraphrases of, 95Purcell, Henry, 16Pym, John, 171
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 198, 253Ranelagh, Lady, 69Ready and Easy Way A, toEstablish a Free Commonwealth, 65Reason, The, of Church Government, 13, 37Regicides, the, 55, 63, 71, 74Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 16Rome, 44, 209Rossetti, Dante G., 133, 135
St. Brides', Fleet Street, 46St. Giles' Church, Cripplegate, 79St. John, J. A., 252St. Paul, 9, 144, 218St. Paul's Cathedral, 89, 193Salmasius, 59-62, 69, 218Samson Agonistes, 13, 20, 24, 78, 83, 99, 199, 219et sqq., 250Sansovino's Library, Venice, 193Saumaise,seeSalmasius.Scudamore, Lord, 43Shakspeare, W., 9, 14, 17, 32, 35, 36, 80, 85, 90, 103, 114, 118,145, 166, 247; sonnets, 133-5, 253Shelley, P. B., 20, 29, 50, 79, 90, 99, 102, 111, 125, 228Shelley, Mrs. P. B., 50Sidney, Sir Philip, 58, 98, 124, 135Skinner, Cyriack, 62, 133Smithfield, 72Song on May Morning, 36, 107Sonnets, 47, 54, 62-3, 68, 69, 91, 106, 131et sqq.Sophocles, 82, 233, 245Spectator, The, 253Spenser, Edmund, 93, 97, 98, 111, 115, 116, 124, 125, 153State, The, of Innocence, 240, 253Statius, 157Strafford, Earl of, 171Sumner, Rev. C. R., 252Symmons, Charles, 252
Tasso, Torquato, 45, 82, 153, 164Tennyson, Alfred, 69, 90, 197Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 56, 58, 75Theocritus, 124Todd, Rev. H. J., 251Toland, John, 251Tonson, Jacob, 250Treatise of Christian Doctrine, 252Trinity College Library, 89, 250Turner, J. W. M., 16Tyburn, 71, 90
Verrall, A. W., 240Virgil, 82, 84, 89, 91, 124, 139, 150, 152, 153, 155, 157, 163, 175Vita Nuova, La, 120
Waller, Edmund, 104Warton, Joseph, 118, 126, 214Warton, Thomas, 253Whitehall, 58, 70, 74, 219Williamson, Dr. G. C., 252Winchester, Marchioness of, 36Windsor, 37Windsor Castle, 40Wood, Anthony à, 31, 35, 252Wordsworth, W., 26, 34, 79, 90, 131, 133, 135, 137, 140, 141,206, 227-30; sonnets, 137-41, 253Works, The, of John Milton, in Prose and Verse, 252Wren, Sir Christopher, 16, 89Wright, W. Aldis, 251
Young, Thomas, 27