Life Of John Milton by Richard Garnett (best free novels TXT) 📖
- Author: Richard Garnett
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Reader Alike. There Is Much To Repel, Little To Attract A Young Reader;
No Wonder That Macaulay, Fresh From College, Put It So Far Below
"Comus," To Which The More Mature Taste Is Disposed To Equal It. It Is
Related To The Earlier Work As Sculpture Is To Painting, But Sculpture
Of The Severest School, All Sinewy Strength; Studious, Above All, Of
Impressive Truth. "Beyond These An Ancient Fisherman And A Rock Are
Fashioned, A Rugged Rock, Whereon With Might And Main The Old Man Drags
A Great Net From His Cast, As One That Labours Stoutly. Thou Wouldest
Say That He Is Fishing With All The Might Of His Limbs, So Big The
Sinews Swell All About His Neck, Grey-Haired Though He Is, But His
Strength Is As The Strength Of Youth."[9] Behold Here The Milton Of
"Samson Agonistes," A Work Whose Beauty Is Of Metal Rather Than Of
Marble, Hard, Bright, And Receptive Of An Ineffaceable Die. The Great
Fault Is The Frequent Harshness Of The Style, Principally In The
Choruses, Where Some Strophes Are Almost Uncouth. In The Blank Verse
Speeches Perfect Grace Is Often United To Perfect Dignity: As In The
Farewell Of Dalila:--
"Fame If Not Double-Faced Is Double-Mouthed,
And With Contrary Blast Proclaims Most Deeds;
On Both His Wings, One Black, The Other White,
Bears Greatest Names In His Wild Aery Flights.
My Name Perhaps Among The Circumcised,
In Dan, In Judah, And The Bordering Tribes,
To All Posterity May Stand Defamed,
With Malediction Mentioned, And The Blot
Of Falsehood Most Unconjugal Traduced.
But In My Country Where I Most Desire,
In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, And In Gath,
I Shall Be Named Among The Famousest
Of Women, Sung At Solemn Festivals,
Living And Dead Recorded, Who To Save
Her Country From A Fierce Destroyer, Chose
Above The Faith Of Wedlock-Bands; My Tomb
With Odours Visited And Annual Flowers."
The Scheme Of "Samson Agonistes" Is That Of The Greek Drama, The Only
One Appropriate To An Action Of Such Extreme Simplicity, Admitting So
Few Personages, And These Only As Foils To The Hero. It Is, But For Its
Miltonisms Of Style And Autobiographic And Political Allusion, Just Such
A Drama As Sophocles Or Euripides Would Have Written On The Subject, And
Has All That Depth Of Patriotic And Religious Sentiment Which Made The
Greek Drama So Inexpressibly Significant To Greeks. Consummate Art Is
Shown In The Invention Of The Philistine Giant, Harapha, Who Not Only
Enriches The Meagre Action, And Brings Out Strong Features In The
Character Of Samson, But Also Prepares The Reader For The Catastrophe.
We Must Say Reader, For Though The Drama Might Conceivably Be Acted With
Effect On A Court Or University Stage, The Real Living Theatre Has Been
No Place For It Since The Days Of Greece. Milton Confesses As Much When
In His Preface He Assails "The Poet's Error Of Intermixing Comic Stuff
With Tragic Sadness And Gravity; Or Introducing Trivial And Vulgar
Persons, Which By All Judicious Hath Been Counted Absurd; And Brought In
Without Discretion, Corruptly To Gratify The People." In His View
Tragedy Should Be Eclectic; In Shakespeare's It Should Be All Embracing.
Chapter 10 Pg 100Shelley, Perhaps, Judged More Rightly Than Either When He Said: "The
Modern Practice Of Blending Comedy With Tragedy Is Undoubtedly An
Extension Of The Dramatic Circle; But The Comedy Should Be As In 'King
Lear,' Universal, Ideal, And Sublime." On The Whole, "Samson Agonistes"
Is A Noble Example Of A Style Which We May Hope Will In No Generation Be
Entirely Lacking To Our Literature, But Which Must Always Be Exotic,
From Its Want Of Harmony With The More Essential Characteristics Of Our
Tumultous, Undisciplined, Irrepressible National Life.
In One Point Of View, However, "Samson Agonistes" Deserves To Be
Esteemed A National Poem, Pregnant With A Deeper Allusiveness Than Has
Always Been Recognized. Samson's Impersonation Of The Author Himself Can
Escape No One. Old, Blind, Captive, Helpless, Mocked, Decried, Miserable
In The Failure Of All His Ideals, Upheld Only By Faith And His Own
Unconquerable Spirit, Milton Is The Counterpart Of His Hero. Particular
References To The Circumstances Of His Life Are Not Wanting: His Bitter
Self-Condemnation For Having Chosen His First Wife In The Camp Of The
Enemy, And His Surprise That Near The Close Of An Austere Life He Should
Be Afflicted By The Malady Appointed To Chastise Intemperance. But, As
In The Hebrew Prophets Israel Sometimes Denotes A Person, Sometimes A
Nation, Samson Seems No Less The Representative Of The English People In
The Age Of Charles The Second. His Heaviest Burden Is His Remorse, A
Remorse Which Could Not Weigh On Milton:--
"I Do Acknowledge And Confess
That I This Honour, I This Pomp Have Brought
To Dagon, And Advanced His Praises High
Among The Heathen Round; To God Have Brought
Dishonour, Obloquy, And Oped The Mouths
Of Idolists And Atheists; Have Brought Scandal
To Israel, Diffidence Of God, And Doubt
In Feeble Hearts, Propense Enough Before
To Waver, To Fall Off, And Join With Idols;
Which Is My Chief Affliction, Shame, And Sorrow,
The Anguish Of My Soul, That Suffers Not
My Eye To Harbour Sleep, Or Thoughts To Rest."
Milton Might Reproach Himself For Having Taken A Philistine Wife, But
Not With Having Suffered Her To Shear Him. But The Same Could Not Be
Said Of The English Nation, Which Had In His View Most Foully
Apostatized From Its Pure Creed, And Most Perfidiously Betrayed The High
Commission It Had Received From Heaven. "This Extolled And Magnified
Nation, Regardless Both Of Honour Won, Or Deliverances Vouchsafed, To
Fall Back, Or Rather To Creep Back, So Poorly As It Seems The Multitude
Would, To Their Once Abjured And Detested Thraldom Of Kingship! To Be
Ourselves The Slanderers Of Our Own Just And Religious Deeds! To Verify
All The Bitter Predictions Of Our Triumphing Enemies, Who Will Now Think
They Wisely Discerned And Justly Censured Us And All Our Actions As
Rash, Rebellious, Hypocritical, And Impious!" These Things, Which Milton
Refused To Contemplate As Possible When He Wrote His "Ready Way To
Establish A Free Commonwealth," Had Actually Come To Pass. The English
Nation Is To Him The Enslaved And Erring Samson--A Samson, However, Yet
Chapter 10 Pg 101To Burst His Bonds, And Bring Down Ruin Upon Philistia. "Samson
Agonistes" Is Thus A Prophetic Drama, The English Counterpart Of The
World-Drama Of "Prometheus Bound."
Goethe Says That Our Final Impression Of Any One Is Derived From The
Last Circumstances In Which We Have Beheld Him. Let Us, Therefore,
Endeavour To Behold Milton As He Appeared About The Time Of The
Publication Of His Last Poems, To Which Period Of His Life The
Descriptions We Possess Seem To Apply. Richardson Heard Of His Sitting
Habitually "In A Grey Coarse Cloth Coat At The Door Of His House Near
Bunhill Fields, In Warm Sunny Weather To Enjoy The Fresh Air"--A
Suggestive Picture. What Thoughts Must Have Been Travelling Through His
Mind, Undisturbed By External Things! How Many Of The Passers Knew That
They Flitted Past The Greatest Glory Of The Age Of Newton, Locke, And
Wren? For One Who Would Reverence The Author Of "Paradise Lost," There
Were Probably Twenty Who Would Have Been Ready With A Curse For The
Apologist Of The Killing Of The King. In-Doors He Was Seen By Dr.
Wright, In Richardson's Time An Aged Clergyman In Dorsetshire, Who Found
Him Up One Pair Of Stairs, In A Room Hung With Rusty Green "Sitting In
An Elbow Chair, Black Clothes, And For A
Livelihood; But The Fish-Basket That He Wove Was So Successful That The
Neighbours Supplied Him With Food So That He Might Make Such Baskets
For Them. And Soon People Came From The Town To Buy His Baskets, And
When He Carried His Wares To Market, He Got Rid Of Them All On The Way.
So Basket-Making Became His Trade, And He Thought How Once The Little
Moses Was Saved In A Basket On The Nile. And Just As His Work Was
Liked, So Also Did Mary And Himself Win Affection, And They Confessed
That Life Went Better On The Banks Of The Nile Than In Poor Little
Nazareth, For Veritably There Were Fleshpots In Egypt. If Only They
Could Have Crushed Their Hearts' Longing For Home!
When The Little Jesus Began To Walk, The Mothers Who Were Their
Neighbours Wished Him To Make Friends With Their Children And Play With
Them. But The Boy Was Reserved And Awkward With Strangers. He
Preferred To Wander Alone At Evening-Time Besides The Stream And Gaze
At The Big Lotus Flowers Growing Out Of The Mud, And At The Crocodiles
Which Sometimes Crawled Out Of The Water, And Lifting Their Heads
Towards The Sky, Opened Their Great Jaws As If They Would Drink In The
Sunshine. He Often Remained Out Longer Than He Ought, And Came Back
With Glowing Cheeks, Excited By Some Pleasure About Which He Said
Nothing. When He Had Eaten His Figs Or Dates, And Lay In His Little
Bed, His Father And Mother Sat Close By, And Spoke Of The Land Of Their
Fathers, Or Told Ancient Tales Of Their Ancestors Until He Fell Asleep.
Joseph Instructed The Boy In The Jewish Writings; But It Was Soon
Apparent That Joseph Was The Pupil, For What He Read With Difficulty
From The Roll, Little Jesus Spoke Out Spontaneously From His Innermost
Soul. So He Grew Into A Slender, Delicate Stripling, Learned The
Foreign Tongue, Marked The Customs, And Followed Them So Far As They
Pleased Him. There Was Much In Him That He Did Not Owe To Education;
Although He Said Little, His Mother Observed It. And Once She Asked
Joseph: "Tell Me, Are Other Children Like Our Jesus?"
He Answered; "So Far As I Know Them--He Is Different."
Chapter 10 Pg 102
One Day, When Jesus Was
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