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 9

To Heav'n. Their martyrd blood and ashes fow

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

A

himself in their favor, and his be. “ merly enjoy'd. So great was haviour in this whole transaction is " the terror of his name ; nothing greatly to his honor, even as it is being more usual than his sayrelated by an historian, who was ing, that his ships in the Mediterfar from being partial to his me- ranean should visit Civita Vecchia, mory.

« Nor would the Protector " and the sound of his cannon should “ be backward in such a work, “ be heard in Rome." See Echard " which might give the world a Vol. 2.

particular opinion of his piety " and zeal for the protestant re- 3. Ev’n them who kept thy truth

ligion ; but he proclam'd a so- so pure of old, &c) And so in " lemn fast, and caused large con- his letter to the States of the Unit"tributions to be gather'd for them ed Provinces he calls them' Alpinos

throughout the kingdom of Eng. incolas orthodoxam religionem anti“ land and Wales. Nor did he quitus profitentes, the inhabitants at " rest here, but sent his agents to the feet of the Alps, ancient pro

the Duke of Savoy, a prince feffors of the orthodox faith ; and “ with whom he had no

cor- afterwards in the same letter, apud "respondence or commerce, and quos noftra religio vel ab ipfis Evan" the next year so engag'd the gelii primis doctoribus tradita per ma" Cardinal of France, and even nus & incorrupte servata, vel multó

terrify'd the Pope himself, with- ante quam apud cateras gentes finca " out so much as doing any favor ritati priftina restituta eft, among

to the English Roman catholics, whom our religion was either dislie " that that Duke thought it neces- minated by the first doctors of the

sary to restore all that he had ta- Gospel, and preservd from the "ken from them, and renew'd all defilement of superstition, or else " those privileges they had for- restor'd to its pristin fincerity long VOL. II.

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before

A hundred fold, who having learn’d thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.

XIX.

On his blindness.

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide,

Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present 5

My true account, lest he returning chide;
Doth God exact day-labor, light deny'd,

I fondly ask : But patience to prevent
That murmur,

soon replies, God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts; who best 10

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,

And

before other nations obtain'd that talents, Mat. XXV. and he speaks felicity.

with great modesty of himself, as 14. the Babylonian woe. ] if he had not five, or two, but only The woes denounced against Rome, one talent. under the name of Babylon, in Scripture.

* This Mr. Lawrence was the 3. And that one talent which is son of the President of Cromwell's

death to hide,] He speaks here council: and this sonnet was also with allusion to the parable of the in the edition of 1673.

And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.

XX.

* To Mr. LAWRENCE.

a

be won

Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,

Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire, Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire

Help waste a súllen day, what may
From the hard season gaining ? time will run 5

On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire
The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire

The lilly' and rose, that neither fow'd nor spun. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,

Of Attic tafte, with wine, whence we may

To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air ?

He

rise 10

6. Favonius] The same as Ze- Nam fimul ac fpecies patefacta phyrus, or the western wind that eft verna diei, blows in the spring. Plin. Lib. 16.

Et referata viget genitabilis aura Se&t. 39. Hic eft genitalis fpiritus Favoni. mundi, a fovendo di&tus, ut quidam existimavere. Flat ab occasu 8. that neither fow'd nor spun.] aquinoctiali, ver inchoans. And fo Alluding to Mat. VI. 26, 28. they

fow not, neither do they spin.

Cyriac

Lucretius I. ic.

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He who of those delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft, is not unwise.

XXI. of To CYRIAC SKINNER. Cyriac, whose grandfire on the royal bench

Of British Themis, with no'mean applaufe Pronounc'd and in his volumes taught our laws,

Which others at their bar so often wrench;
To day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench 5

In mirth, that after no repenting draws ;
Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause,
And what the Swede intends, and what the French.

Το

+ Cyriac Skinner was the son of 8. And what the Swede intends,] William Skinner Esq; and grand. We have printed it as it is in the son of Sir Vincent Skinner, and Manuscript. In the first edition it his mother was Bridget, one of the was And what the Swede intend, daughters of the famous Sir Ed- which in others is alter'd to And ward Coké Lord Chief Justice of what the Swedes intend. Charles the King's Bench. Mr. Wood in- Guftavus, king of Sweden, was at forms us that he was one of Har- this time waging war with Poland, rington's political club, and some- and the French with the Spaniards times held the chair; and farther in the Netherlands : and what Miladds, that he was a merchant's son ton fays is somewhat in the spirit of London, an ingenious young and manner of Horace. Od. II. gentleman, and scholar to John XI. 1. Milton. Athen. Ox. Vol. 2. p. 591. No wonder then that Milton was Quid bellicofus Cantaber, et so intimate with him, and has ad- Scythes dress'd two sonnets to him, this first Hirpine Quinti, cogitet, Hadria of which was printed in the edi. Divisus objecto, remittas tion of 1673.

Quærere : &c.

The

a

a

To measure life learn thou betimes, and know

9 Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;

For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wise in show,

That with superfluous burden loads the day, And when God sends a chearful hour, refrains.

XXII.

* To the fame. Cyriac, this three years day these eyes, though clear,

To outward view, of blemish or of spot,
Bereft of light their seeing have forgot,
Nor to their idle orbs doth fight appear

Of

* The two fonnets to Cyriac man. In the printed editions this Skinner we have printed in the sonnet likewise is very incorrect, same order as they are number'd but we shall restore it by the aflıfin the Manuscript. This latter tance of the Manuscript. was never printed in Milton's lifetime, but was first publish'd se- 3. Bereft of light ib.ir seeing have veral years after his death at the

forgot,] In the printed copies fame time and in the same manner it is absurdly, with the foregoing ones to General Fairfax, Cromwell, and Sir Henry

Bereft of fight their seeing have Vane: and tho' the person, to

forgot. whom it is address’d, was not so obnoxious as any of those before

4. Nor to their idle orbs doth fight mention’d, yet it might not have

- appear been safe for Milton to have pub

Of Jun, or moon, &c. ] In the lisid such a commendation of his printed editions it is, Defense of the people, which the Nor to their idle orbs doth day government had order'd to be burnt

appear, by the hands of the common hang- Or iun, or moon, &c.

7. Against

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