Though later born than to have known the days

Wherein your father flourish’d, yet by you,

Madam, methinks I see him living yet ;
So well your words his noble virtues praise,

That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to possess them, honour'd Margaret.

XI. ON THE DETRACTION WHICH FOLLOWED UPON MY

WRITING CERTAIN TREATISES.

A BOOK was writ of late call’d Tetrachordon,

And woven close, both matter, form, and stile ;
The subject new: it walk'd the Town a while,

Numbering good intellects ; now seldom por’d on.
Cries the stall-reader, Bless us ! what a word on

A title page is this ! and some in file
Stand spelling false, while one might walk to Mile-

End Green. Why is it harder, Sirs, than Gordon,
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp ?2
Those rugged names to our like mouths

grow

sleek, That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp. Thy age, like ours, 0 Soul of Sir John Cheek,

Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taught'st Cambridge and king Edward, Greek.

1 Tetrachordon:' this was one of Milton's books, published in consequence of his divorce from his first wife. Tetrachordon signifies Expositions on the four chief places in Scripture which mention marriage, or nullities in marriage. - Milton is here collecting, from his hatred to the Scots, what he thinks Scottish names of an ill sound. Colkitto and Macdonnel are one and the same person ; a brave officer on the royal side, an Irishman of the Antrim family, who served under Montrose. The Macdonalds of that family are styled, by way of distinction, Mac Colleittok, i. e., descendants of lame Colin. Galasp, or George Gillespie, was a Scottish writer against the Independents, and one of the members of the Assembly of Divines, and a right noble spirit. 2.Sir John Cheek:' the first professor of the Greek tongue in the University of Cambridge, and afterwards made one of the tutors to Edward VI.

XII. ON THE SAME.

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs

By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When straight a barbarous noise environs me

Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs :
As when those hinds 1 that were transform'd to frogs

Raild at Latona's2 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.

Licence they mean when they cry Liberty ;
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 THE PUBLISHING HIS

AIRS.

HARRY, whose tuneful and well-measured song

First taught our English musick how to span
Words with just note and accent, not to scan

With Midas ears, committing 4 short and long;
Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,

With praise enough for Envy to look wan ;
To after age thou shalt be writ the man,

That with smooth air could'st humour best our tongue.
Thou honour'st verse, and verse must lend her wing

To honour thee the priest of Phæbus' quire,
That tunest their happiest lines in hymn, or story.

1 Hinds : ' see Ovid, Met. lib. vi.—2 «Latona's :' Apollo and Diana.— 3 • Lawes : ' see · Comus.'—* Committing: 'offending against rule and quantity.

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.

XIV. ON THE RELIGIOUS MEMORY OF MRS CATHERINE
THOMSON,2 MY CHRISTIAN FRIEND, DECEASED

DECEMBER 16, 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,

Staid 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

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,
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 I Casella:' an eminent musician and friend of Dante ; see an exquisite passage in Purg. c. ii. v. 111.-Mrs Thomson: 'Milton, when made Latin Secretary, lodged in her house. She was a Quakeress.

N

Her broken leaguel to imp2 their serpent wings. O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand,

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

Till truth and right from violence be freed,
And publick faith clear'd from the shameful brand

Of publick 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,
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 3 stream, with blood of Scots imbrued,

And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud, And Worcester's laureat wreath. Yet much remains

To conquer still; Peace hath her victories

No less renown'd than War: New foes arise
Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains :

Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of bireling wolves, 4 whose gospel is their maw.

XVII. TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.

VANE, young

in

years, but in sage counsel old, Than whom a better senator ne'er held The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repell’d

1. Broken league :' the English Parliament held that the Scotch had broken their Covenant by Hamilton's march to England.—"Imp:' add a new piece to the old.—3 • Darwen :' a river near Preston, where Cromwell routed the Scotch in August 1648.— * Hireling wolves :' he means the Presbyterian clergy, and the claims they made on the parochial revenues.

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

The drift of hollow States 1 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

Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,

What severs each, thou hast learn'd, which few have done :
The bounds of either sword to thee we owe :

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

.

XVIII. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEMONT.

AVENGE, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones

Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold ;
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones,
Forget not; in thy book record their groans

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese that rollid

Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow

O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple Tyrant ; that from these may grow

A hundredfold, who, having learn'd thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.

States:' those of Holland._? The late massacre :' this was organised by the Duke of Savoy in 1655. It was very barbarous. Those who escaped fled to ountains of Piedmont, whence they applied Cromwell for relief. He ordered a general fast, and made a national contribution, amounting to £40,000.