XII.

On the same.

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,

When strait a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckows, asses, apes, and dogs:
As when those hinds that were transform'd to frogs 5
Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny,

Which after held the sun and moon in fee.
But this is got by casting pearl to hogs;

That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,

And still revolt when truth would set them free. 10 Licence they mean when they cry Liberty;

Strype, or in Biographia Britan- pectations of making a consider

nica.

13. Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,] Mr. Bowle quotes Halle, Rich. II. f. 34. "Diverse noble personages hated "Kinge Richard worse than a "toade or a serpent." T. Warton.

This Sonnet was written evidently in a sportive struggle to bend knotty words into rhyme. Symmons.

4. Of owls and cuckows,] In Milton's Manuscript it stands,

Of owls and buzzards.

5. As when those hinds &c.] The fable of the Lycian clowns changed into frogs is related by Ovid, Met. vi. Fab. 4. and the poet in saying

Which after held the sun and moon

in fee,

intimates the good hopes which he had of himself, and his ex

able figure in the world.

8. by casting pearl to hogs ;] Matt. vii. 6. neither cast ye your pearls before swine.

10. And still revolt &c.] He had written at first,

And hate the truth whereby they should be free.

11. Licence they mean when they cry Liberty.] "The hypo

66

I crisy of some shames not to "take offence at this doctrine "[the liberty of Divorce] for "Licence; whereas indeed, they "fear it would remove Licence, "and leave them but few com

panions." Tetrachord. vol. i. 4to. p. 319. He further explains himself at the bottom of the same page: "This one virtue "incomparable it [the prohibi"tion of divorce] hath, to fill "all christendom with whore"doms and adulteries, beyond "the art of Balaams or of devils."

For who loves that, must first be wise and good;
But from that mark how far they rove we see
For all this waste of wealth, and loss of blood.

XIII.

To Mr. H. LAWES on his Airs.*

HARRY, whose tuneful and well measur'd song
First taught our English music how to span
Words with just note and accent, not to scan
With Midas' ears, committing short and long;
Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,
With praise enough for envy to look wan;

heartily but good men: the "rest love not Freedom, but Li66 cence ; which never hath more

scope or more indulgence than "under tyrants." Hurd.

*This Sonnet was also first added in the edition of 1673, and in Milton's Manuscript it is dated Feb. 9, 1645, and said to be wrote to Mr. Lawes, on the publishing of his Airs. This Mr. Henry Lawes was a gentleman of his Majesty's chapel, and one of his band of music, and an intimate friend of Milton, as appears by his first publishing the Mask in 1637, the airs of which he set to music, and probably too those of his Arcades. He was educated under Signor Coperario, and introduced a softer mixture of Italian airs, than had been practised before in our nation; as Mr Fenton says in his

-when most were us'd to scan
With Midas' ears, misjoining short
and long.

But committing conveys with it
the idea of offending against
quantity and harmony.

4. Committing is a Latinism.

T. Warton.

To after age thou shalt be writ the man,

That with smooth air could'st humour best our

Thou honour'st verse, and verse must lend her wing
To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire,
That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story.
Dante shall give fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella, whom he woo'd to sing
Met in the milder shades of purgatory.

And in the Manuscript it was Purgatorio, where the poet rethus at first,

lates his meeting with Casella in purgatory, and wooing him

That didst reform thy art, the chief to sing in these terms,

XIV.

On the religious memory of Mrs. Catharine Thomson, my Christian friend, deceased 16 Dec. 1646.* WHEN faith and love, which parted from thee never, Had ripen'd thy just soul to dwell with God, Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load

Of death, call'd life; which us from life doth sever. Thy works and alms and all thy good endeavour

Stay'd not behind, nor in the grave were trod; But as faith pointed with her golden rod, Follow'd thee up to joy and bliss for ever. Love led them on, and faith who knew them best Thy hand-maids, clad them o'er with purple beams

many parts of his writings, Dante appears to have been a judge and a lover of music. This is not the only circumstance in which Milton resembled Dante. By milder shades, our author means, shades comparatively much less horrible than those which Dante describes in the Inferno. T. Warton.

* To this Sonnet, which was first printed in the edition of 1673, we have added the title which is in Milton's Manuscript. Who this Mrs. Thomson was, we cannot be certain; but I find in the accounts of Milton's life, that when he was first made Latin secretary, he lodged at one Thomson's, next door to the Bullhead tavern at Charing Cross. This Mrs. Thomson was in all probability one of that family.

* Mr. Warton seems to have supposed that Mrs. Thomson was a Quaker. See Mr. Dunster's note on P. R. iv. 288. E.

5

3. Meekly thou didst resign &c.] In the Manuscript these lines were thus at first,

Meekly thou didst resign this earthly
clod

Of flesh and sin, which man from
Heav'n doth sever.

6. Stay'd not behind, &c.] Instead of this lines were the following at first in the Manuscript,

Strait follow'd thee the path that

saints have trod,

Still as they journey'd from this dark abode

Up to the realm of peace and joy for

ever.

Faith shew'd the way, and she who saw them best

Thy hand-maids &c.

6.-nor in the grave were trod ;] This is a beautiful periphrasis for "good deeds forgotten at her "death," and a happy improvement of the original line in the MS. T. Warton.

10. -clad them o'er with purple beams

And azure wings, that up they flew so drest, &c.]

And azure wings, that up they flew so drest, And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes Before the Judge, who thenceforth bid thee rest And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams.

XV.

To the Lord General FAIRFAX.*

FAIRFAX, whose name in arms through Europe rings, Filling each mouth with envy or with praise,

Compare P. L. v. 632. seq. where stroyed. It is therefore a singu