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And all her jealous monarchs with amaze
And rumours loud, that daunt remotest kings,

Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings

Victory home, though new rebellions raise
Their Hydra heads, and the false North displays
Her broken league to imp their serpent wings.

dressed to him at the siege of Colchester, which was carried on in the summer of 1648.

* These Sonnets, and the two to Cyriac Skinner, were the favourites of the republicans long after the Restoration: it was some consolation to a ruined party to have such good poetry remaining on their side of the question. T. Warton.

1.-rings,] Milton is fond of ring, for violence of sound; I mean in a good sense, and out of its appropriated, literal application. Sonn. xxii. 12. "Of "which all Europe rings from "side to side." Where see the note. Hymn. Nativ. v. "Ring "out ye crystal spheres." Par. Lost, ii. 495. "Hill and valley

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rings." Ib. iii. 347. "Heaven rung with jubilee." Ib. vi. 204. "The faithful armies rung Ho"sanna." Ib. vii. 562. Ib. vii. 562. All "the constellations rung." Ib. vii. 633. "The empyrean rung "with hallelujahs." Ib. ix. 737. "The sound yet rung of his "persuasive words." We may add, "No more with cymbals ring." H. Nativ. v. 208. But this is, perhaps, a literal use. T. Warton.

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8. Her broken league] Because the English Parliament held, that the Scotch had broken their covenant, by Hamilton's march into England. Hurd.

8. to imp their serpent-wings.] In falconry, to imp a feather in a hawk's wing, is to add a new piece to a mutilated stump. From the Saxon impan, to ingraft. So Spenser, of a headless trunk, F. Q. iv. ix. 4.

And having ympt the head to it agayne.

6. —though new rebellions raise &c.] At this time there were several insurrections of the royalists, and the Scotch army was marching into England under To imp wings is not uncommon

O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand,

(For what can war, but endless war still breed?) 10

Till truth and right from violence be freed,

And public faith clear'd from the shameful brand
Of public fraud. In vain doth valour bleed,
While avarice and rapine share the land.

XVI.

To the Lord General CROMWELL.*

CROMWELL, Our chief of men, who through a cloud Not of war only, but detractions rude,

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Fletcher, Purpl. Isl. c. i. 24.

-imping their flaggie wings With thy stolne plumes. Shakespeare, Rich. II. a. ii. s. 1.

Imp out our drooping country's broken wing.

Where Mr. Steevens produces other instances. It occurs also in poets much later than Milton. See also Reed's Old Pl. vii. 172, 520. x. 351. T. Warton.

13. Of public fraud.] The Presbyterian Committees and Subcommittees. The grievance so much complained of by Milton in his History of England. See Birch's edition. Public fraud is opposed to public faith, the security given by the parliament to the City-contributions for carrying on the war. Warburton.

In the Manuscript was this Inscription, but blotted out again,

I know not for what reason, To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652, On the proposals of

certain ministers at the committee for propagation of the gospel.

* The prostitution of Milton's Muse to the celebration of Cromwell, was as inconsistent and unworthy, as that this enemy to kings, to ancient magnificence, and to all that is venerable and majestic, should have been buried in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. But there is great dignity both of sentiment and expression in this Sonnet. Unfortunately, the close is an anticlimax to both. After a long flow of perspicuous and nervous language, the unexpected pause at "Worcester's laureat wreath," is very emphatical, and has a striking effect.

1. who through a cloud &c.] In the printed copies it stands thus,

-that through a crowd Not of war only, but distractions rude: but a cloud of war is a classical expression, and we have nubem belli in Virgil, Æn. x. 809.

Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,

To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough'd, And on the neck of crowned fortune proud

Hast rear'd God's trophies, and his work pursued, While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued, And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud, And Worcester's laureate wreath.

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Yet much remains

To conquer still; peace hath her victories
No less renown'd than war: new foes arise
Threat'ning to bind our souls with secular chains :
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.

4. To peace and truth] With an allusion perhaps to some of the silver coins of the Commonwealth, which have this inscription round the edges, Truth and peace. 1651.

5. And on the neck of crowned fortune proud Hast rear'd God's trophies, and his work pursued, Instead of these two glorious lines there is this single one in the printed copies,

And fought God's battles, and his works pursued:

and this defect in the number of verses utterly spoils the harmony of the stanza.

5.-crowned fortune] His malignity to Kings aided his imagination in the expresion of this sublime sentiment. Hurd.

7. While Darwen stream &c.] The Darwen or Derwen is a small river near Preston in Lancashire, mentioned by Camden; and there Cromwell routed the Scotch army under Duke Hamilton in August 1648. The battles of Dunbar and Worcester are too

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well known to be particularized, both fought on the memorable 3d of September, the one in 1650, and the other in 1651.

9. And Worcester's laureate wreath,] It was so corrected, very much for the better, from what was before in the Manuscript,

And twenty battles more

9. I take it, that one of the essential beauties of the Sonnet is often to carry the pauses into the middle of the lines. Of this our author has given many striking examples; and here we discern the writer whose ear was tuned to blank verse. T. Warton.

12.-secular chains.] The Ministers moved Cromwell to lend the secular arm to suppress sectaries. Warburton.

14. Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.] Hence it appears that this Sonnet was written about May, 1652.

By hireling wolves he means the presbyterian clergy, who

XVII.

To Sir HENRY VANE the

*

younger.

counsel old,

VANE, young in years, but in sage

Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms repell'd

possessed the revenues of the parochial benefices on the old constitution, and whose conformity he supposes to be founded altogether on motives of emolument. See note on Lycidas, v. 114.

Milton's praise of Cromwell may be thought inconsistent with that zeal which he professed for liberty: for Cromwell's assumption of the Protectorate, even if we allow the lawfulness of the Rebellion, was palpably a violent usurpation of power over the rights of the nation, and was reprobated even by the republican party. Milton, however, in various parts of the Defensio Secunda, gives excellent admonitions to Cromwell, and with great spirit, freedom, and eloquence, not to abuse his new authority. Yet not without an intermixture of the grossest adulation. See note on Samson Agonistes, v. 1268. T. Warton.

*There is no knowing for certain when this Sonnet was composed; but we follow the order wherein they stand and are numbered in Milton's Manuscript, and probably it was composed soon after the foregoing one to Cromwell, and upon the same occasion of the ministers' proposals relating, I suppose, to their maintenance, which was then under consideration.

1. Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old, &c.] Sir Henry Vane the younger was the chief of the independents, and therefore Milton's friend. He was the contriver of the Solemn League and Covenant. He was an eccentric character, in an age of eccentric characters. In religion the most fantastic of all enthusiasts, and a weak writer, he was a judicious and sagacious politician. The warmth of his zeal never misled his public measures. He was a knight-errant in every thing but affairs of state. The sagacious Bishop Burnet in vain attempted to penetrate the darkness of his creed. He held, that the devils and the damned would be saved. He believed himself the person delegated by God, to reign over the saints upon earth for a thousand years. His principles founded a sect called the Vanists. On the whole, no single man ever exhibited such a medley of fanaticism and dissimulation, solid abilities and visionary delusions, good sense and madness. In the pamphlets of that age he is called Sir Humorous Vanity. He was beheaded in 1662. On the Scaffold, he compared Tower Hill to mount Pisgah, where Moses went to die, in full assurance of being immediately placed at the right hand of Christ.

Milton alludes to the execu

The fierce Epirot and the African bold, Whether to settle peace, or to unfold

The drift of hollow states hard to be spell'd, Then to advise how war may best upheld Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, In all her equipage: besides to know

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Both spiritual pow'r and civil, what each means, 10 What severs each, thou hast learn'd, which few have

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The bounds of either sword to thee we owe :

Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.

tion of Vane and other regicides,
after the Restoration, and in
general to the sufferings of his
friends on that event, in a
speech of the Chorus on Samson's
degradation. Sams. Agon. v.
687.

See also Ibid. v. 241.

This Sonnet seems to have been written in behalf of the independents, against the presbyterian hierarchy. T. Warton.

6.-hollow states.] Peace with the hollow States of Holland. Warburton.

9. besides to know &c] In the printed editions this third stanza wants one whole line, and gives us another line so much corrupted as to be utter non

sense:

-besides to know

What serves each, thou hast learn'd, which few have done.

The Manuscript supplies the one, and corrects the other. In the Manuscript it was originally thus,

-besides to know

What pow'r the Church, and what the Civil means,

Thou teachest best, which few have ever done.

-besides to know

7. Then to advise &c.] In the Manuscript there was at first And instead of Then: but afterwards it was corrected as it stands in Afterwards thus, the printed copies. But in the remainder of these two verses, as they stand in the printed copies, the metre is spoiled in one, and the sense in the other.

Then to advise how war may be best upheld,

Manu'd by her two main nerves iron and gold.

Move by was at first in the Manuscript Move on her two main &c.

Both spiritual pow'r and civil, what each means

Thou hast learn'd well, a praise which few have won. At last it was corrected, as we have caused it to be printed.

13. firm hand] In the Manuscript right hand, but altered to firm hand; and should have been altered further to firm arm. Warburton.

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