# The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton

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Edited by
HORACE E. SCUDDER HARRIET WATERS PRESTON W. E. HENLEY PAUL E. MORE GEORGE R. No YES
! HELEN CHILD SARGENT GEORGE L. KITTREDGE HORACE E. SCUDDER HORACE E. SCUDDER HORACE E. SCUDDER HORACE E. SCUDDER WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY HENRY W. BOYNTON HORACE E. SCUDDER W. A. NEILSON GEORGE E. WOODBERRY R. E. NEIL DODGE WILLIAM J. ROLFE HORACE E. SCUDDER A. J. GEORGE In Preparation
F. N. ROBINSON
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK
The Cambridge Edition of the Poets EDITED BY HORACE E. SCUDDER
MILTON BY WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY
Æt. 24
THE
COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF
JOHN MILTON
Cambridge Edition
Milton's Home, Chalfont, St. Giles
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
EDITOR'S NOTE
The text here given follows in general the edition of 1645 for the poems covered by that edition, that of 1667 for Paradise Lost, that of 1671 for Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Occasional readings from the other early editions have been preferred. In the matter of spelling and capitalization a compromise has been attempted between complete modernization and complete adherence to the originals. Generally speaking, the old spelling has been retained where the frequency of its occurrence entitled it to the rank of usage, or where it may be judged to have some special value in the verse.
In regard to the prose translations of the Latin poems a word may be prefaced. With the verse translations of Cowper, Strutt, and Masson already in existence, the chief justification of a prose rendering is naturally to be looked for in its literalness. The present translator has nevertheless taken occasional liberties with the original, in order to make clear, without resort to notes, the allusive passages. Here and there, also, an epithet has been omitted, or an unimportant phrase suppressed, in order to avoid a cumbersome effect in the prose.
The dates attached to each poem are in some cases certain, in others conjectural. An attempt has been made to justify the assumption of dates only in the few cases where the usual and accepted chronology has been departed from. In the English poems, the chronological order of arrangement has been followed, except in the case of the Nativity Ode, which has been given a more conspicuous position than it is chronologically entitled to, and in the case of two or three short poems of the Horton period, transposed for mechanical reasons. In the Latin poems, the arrangement made by Milton has been preserved; but several short pieces of minor interest, and three bits of Greek verse, have been transferred to the Appendix.
Much of the matter usually given in notes has been incorporated in the introductions and headnotes. The notes proper have been made as brief and as strictly explanatory as possible. No notes have been furnished for the Latin poems, as an effort has been made in the prose renderings to meet all important difficulties of interpretation.
Milton has been so much written about that it is next to impossible for an editor to acknowledge specifically the aid which he has received from his predecessors in the field. No editor or biographer, however, can well omit mentioning his indebtedness to the researches of Professor Masson, though to do so is to be guilty of obviousness.
​The portrait which fronts the title-page is that known as the Onslow portrait, from its having belonged to Speaker Onslow, but it has disappeared since the sale of Lord Onslow's pictures in 1828. It had originally belonged to Milton's widow. This photogravure is after Vertue's engraving made in 1731 from the portrait then in Speaker Onslow's possession. The vignette on the title-page represents the "pretty box" which Ellwood found for the poet in the village of Chalfont St. Giles, during the prevalence of the Plague of 1665.
W. V. M.
New York, February 13, 1899.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
L'Allegro and Il Penseroso.
Introduction .... 23
L'allegro 26
Il Penseroso .... 28
Sonnet to the Nightingale . 30
Song On May Morning . . 30
On Time 30
At a Solemn Music ... 30
Upon the Circumcision . . 31
Arcades and Comus.
Introduction .... 32
Arcades 38
Comus 40
Lycidas.
Introduction .... 54
Lycidas 60
Written in Italy:
Introduction .... 63
Sonnet: " Donna Leggiadra, Il
Cot Bel Nome Onora." . . .63
Translation: " Lady Gay and Gracious, Whose Fair Name Honors " 63
Sonnet: " Qual in Colle Aspro, All' Imbrunir Di Sera " .64
Translation: " As On a Rough Hillside, at Dusk of Evening " 64
Canzone: " Ridonsi Donne E Giovani Amorosi " . . . .64
Translation: " the Ladies and Young Lovers Laugh at Me " 64
Sonnet: " Diodati (E Te 'l Dir6 Con Maraviglia) " . . .64
Translation: "Diodati (I Tell It Thee With Wonder) " . 65
Sonnet: " Per Certo I Bei Vostr' Occhi, Donna Mia" . . .65
Translation: " in Sooth, Your Beauteous Eyes, My Lady " . 65
Sonnet: " Giovane, Piano, E Semplicetto Am Ante " . . . 65
Translation: "A Young, and Meek, and Simple Lover " . 65
Poems Written During the Civil War and the Protectorate, 1642-1658.
Sonnets:
Introduction .... 69
When the Assault Was Intended to the City . . . .74
To a Virtuous Young Lady . 74
To the Lady Margaret Ley . 74
On the Detraction Which Followed Upon My Writing Certain Treatises ... 74
On the Same 75
On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament 75
To Mr. H. La Wes On His Airs . 75
On the Religious Memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson . 76
On the Lord General Fairfax . 76
To the Lord General Cromwell ...... 76
To Sir Henry Vane, the Younger 77
On the Late Massacre in Piemont 77
On His Blindness ... 77
To Mr. Lawrence . . . .77
To Cyriack Skinner ... 78
To the Same 78
On His Deceased Wife . . 78
Translations:
The Fifth Ode of Horace Lib. I. . 79
Nine of the Psalms Done Into Metre: ​PSALM LXXX, " THOU SHEPHERD THAT DOST ISRAEL keep" . . 79
PSALM LXXXI, "To GOD OUR STRENGTH SING LOUD and clear" . 80
PSALM LXXXII, " GOD IN THE GREAT ASSEMBLY STANDS " . . . 81
PSALM LXXXIII, "BE NOT THOU SILENT now at length "... 81
PSALM LXXXI V, "How LOVELY ARE THY DWELLINGS FAIR! " 82
PSALM LXXXV, " THY LAND TO FAVOUR GRACIOUSLY " . . 82
PSALM LXXX VI, "THY gracious EAR, O LORD, INCLINE" . . .83
PSALM LXXX VII, " AMONG THE HOLY MOUNTAINS high " . . 84
PSALM LXXXVIII, " LORD GOD, THAT DOST ME SAVE AND KEEP " . . 84
PSALM I, " BLEST is THE MAN WHO HATH NOT WALKED ASTRAY" ... 85
PSALM II, "WHY DO THE GENTILES TUMULT AND THE NATIONS" . . .85
PSALM III, " LORD, HOW MANY ARE MY FOES!" 85
PSALM IV, " ANSWER ME WHEN I CALL " 86
PSALM V, "JEHOVAH, TO MY WORDS GIVE EAR" 86
PSALM VI, " LORD, IN THY ANGER DO NOT REPREHEND ME" . . . 87
PSALM VII, " LORD, MY GOD, TO THEE I FLY" 87
PSALM VIII, "O JEHOVAH OUR LORD, HOW WONDROUS GREAT" . . 88
PARADISE LOST, 1658-1663.
INTRODUCTION 91
ON PARADISE LOST . . . .101
THE VERSE 102
PARADISE LOST 102
PARADISE REGAINED, 1665-1667.
INTRODUCTION 249
PARADISE REGAINED .... 252
SAMSON AGONISTES: A DRAMATIC POEM, 1667-1671.
INTRODUCTION 283
MILTON'S INTRODUCTION . . . 292
SAMSON AGONISTES . . . 293
PART SECOND: LATIN POEMS.
INTRODUCTION
DE AUCTORE TESTIMONIA.
JOANNES BAPTISTA MANSUS, MARCHIO VELLENSIB NEAPOLITANUS, AD JOANNEM MlLTONUM ANGLUM
AD JOANNEM MILTONEM ANGLUM, TRIPLICI POESEOS LAUREA CORONANDUM GRAECA NIMIRUM, LATINA ATQUE HETRUSCA", EPIGRAMMA Jo ANNIS SALSILLI ROMANI . . 321
AD JOANNEM MILTONUM . . . 322
AL SIGNOR Gio. MILTONI, NoBin INGLESE. ODE .... 321
JOANNI MILTONI, LONDINENSI . . 322
ELEGIARUM LIBER.
ELEGIA PRIMA AD CAROLUM DioDATUM 323
ELEGIA SECUNDA IN OBITUM PR.E CONIS ACADEMICI CANTABRIGIENSIS 326
ELEGIA TERTIA IN OBITUM PKA: SULIS WlNTONIENSIS . . . 327
ELEGIA QUARTA AD THOMAM Ju NIUM, PRAECEPTOREM SUUM . . 329
ELEGIA QUINTA IN ADVENTUM VERIS 333
ELEGIA SEXTA AD CAROLUM Dio DATUM, RURI COMMORANTEM . 337
ELEGIA SEPTIMA 340
EPIGRAMMATA:
IN PRODITIONEM BOMBAHDICAM 343
IN INVENTOREM BOMBARDS . 344
AD LEONORAM ROM^E CANENTEM . 344
SYLVARUM LIBER.
IN OBITUM PHOCANCELLARII MEDICI 346
IN QUINTUM NOVEMBRIS . . 347
IN OBITUM PR^SULIS ELIENSIS 354
NATURAM NON PATI SENIUM . . 355
DE IDEA" PLATONIC^ QUEMADMODUM ARISTOTELES INTELLEXIT . . 357
AD PATREM 358
AD SALSILLUM, POETAM ROMANUM, ^EGROTANTEM 362
MANSUS 363
EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS .... 367
AD JOANNEM ROUSIUM . . . 375
APPENDIX.
I. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS . . 381
II. SUPPLEMENTARY LATIN AND GREEK POEMS 409
FROM THE ELEGIARUM LIBER:
APOLOGUS DE RUSTICO ET HERO . 409
DE MORO 410
AD CHRISTINAM, SUECORUM REGI NAM, NOMINE CROMWELLI . 410
FROM THE SYLVARUM LIBER: IN SALMASII HUNDREDAM . . 410
IN SALMASIUM .... 410
PsALM CXIV, 'IcrparjA ore Traces, or' dyAaa <j>v\' 'laxujSov .... 410
PHILOSOPHUS AD REGEM . . 410
IN EFFIGIEI EJUS SCULPTOREM . . 410
INDEX OF FIRST LINES 413
INDEX OF TITLES 415
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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