1

A

Went to the ground: And the repeated air
Of fad Electra's poet had the pow'r

:

To fave th' Athenian walls from ruin bare.

IX.

To a virtuous young Lady.

Lady that in the prime of earliest youth

Wisely hast shunn'd the broad way and the green,
And with those few art eminently seen,

That labor up the hill of heav'nly truth,
The better part with Mary and with Ruth
Chosen thou hast; and they that overween,
And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,

12. And the repeated air &c]
I suppose this refers to a passage in
Plutarch's Life of Lysander. When
that general had taken Athens, he
proposed to change the govern-
ment. Some say he moved in
council that the Athenians might
be reduced to flavery, when at the
same time Erianthus the Theban
proposed wholly to destroy the city,
and leave the country desolate:
but a little afterwards at an en-
tertainment of the captains, one
of them repeated some verses out
of Euripides's Electra, beginning
thus,

Electra, Oh unhappy queen,
Whither wou'd you fly? return;

5

No

Your absence the forsaken groves
And defert palace seem to mourn.

This struck them, and gave them
occasion to reflect, how barbarous
it would appear to lay that city in
ruin, which had been renown'd for
the birth and education of so many
famous men. ειτα μυτοι σωγσιας
γλυομβύνης των ἡγεμονων παρα που
τον, και τινα Φωκέως ασανήθ
εκ της Ευριπιδε Ηλέκτρας τω
παιδον, ἧς ἡ αρχη,

Αγαμεμνονθ ω κορς, ηλυθον

Ηλεκτρα

Ποτι σαν αγροτειραν αυλαν Πανίας επικλαθίωαι, και φανηναι χετλιον εργον,τίω έτως άκλέα και

No anger find in thee, but pity' and ruth. Thy care is fix'd, and zealoufly attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be fure Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,

Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wife and pure.

Χ.

* To the Lady Margaret Ley. Daughter to that good Earl, once Prefident Of England's Council, and her Treafury, Who liv'd in both, unstain'd with gold or fee,

And left them both, more in himself content,

Till fad the breaking of that Parlament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent.
Though later born than to have known the days
Wherein your father florish'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 poffefs them, honor'd Margaret.

6.

Lady Margaret Ley. She was the to visit this lady and her husband, daughter of Sir James Ley, whose and about that time we may supfingular learning and abilities raised pose that this sonnet was comhim through all the great posts pos'd. of the the law, till he came to be made Earl of Marlborough, and Lord High Treasurer, and Lord President of the Council to King James I. He died in an advanc'd age, and Milton attributes his death to the breaking of the parlament; and it is true that the parlament was dissolved the 10th of March 1628-9, and he died on the 14th of the same month. He left several fons and daughters; and the Lady Margaret was married to Captain Hobson of the Ile of Wight. It appears from the

as that dishonest victory &c] This victory was gain'd by Philip of Macedon over the Athenians and their allies; and the news being brought to Athens, that old man eloquent, Ifocrates, who was near a hundred years old, died within a few days, being determin'd not to survive the liberties of his country. λάτα τον βιον επι Χαιρωνιδα αρχονίθ, ολίγαις ἡμεραις ύςερον της εν Χαιρώνεια μάχης, δύοιν δεοντα βεβιωκως έκατον ετη, γνω

ETE

accounts of Milton's life, that in μη χρησαμωθ, άμα τοις αγαthe year 1643 he used frequently θοις της πόλεως συζκαταλυσαι τον

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,
Numb'ring 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

5

Stand spelling false, while one might walk to MileEnd Green. Why is it harder Sirs than Gordon,

Colkitto,

ἑαυτε βιον. Dionyfius Halicar- fonnets, which were first printed in naff. de Ifocrate Vol. 2. p. 150.- the edition of 1673, and to which Edit. Hudson. Plutarch says that we have prefixed the title that he he abstain'd from food for four himself has in the Manufcript. days, and so put a period to his life, having liv'd 98, or as some say 100 years. See Plutarch's Lives of the ten Orators. Vol. 2. p. 837. Edit. Paris. 1624.

* When Milton publish'd his books of Divorce, he was greatly condemn'd by the Presbyterian clergy, whose advocate and champion he had been before. He publish'd his Tetrachordon or Expositions upon the four chief places in Scripture, which treat of marriage or nullities in marriage, in 1645; and foon after we may suppose he composed these two

1. A book was writ of late &c] In the Manuscript he had written at first,

I writ a book of late call'd Tetrachordon,

And weav'd in close, both matter, form and stile;

It went off well about the town a while,

Numb'ring good wits, but now is feldom por'd on.

The reader will readily agree, that it was alter'd for the better.

9

Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galafp?
Those rugged names to our like mouths grow fleek,
That would have made Quintilian stare and gafp.
Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek,
Hated not learning worse than toad or afp,
When thou taught'st Cambridge, and king Edward

Greek.

XII.

On the fame.

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 cuccoos, affes, apes and dogs:

As

9. Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Ga- Cambridge, and was highly inftru