Life Of John Milton by Richard Garnett (best free novels TXT) 📖
- Author: Richard Garnett
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Palace With Torches In Order To Do Homage To Pharaoh, The Son Of Light.
The King Looked Annoyed. Such Homage Was Repeated Every New Moon--He
Desired It, And Yet It Bored Him. He Beckoned To The Cup-Bearers, He
Wanted A Goblet Of Wine. That Brought The Blood To His Cheeks, And The
Light To His Eyes. He Joined In The Hymn Of Praise To Osiris, And His
Whole Form Glowed With Strength And Gladness.
When The Quiet Night Succeeded The Luxurious Day, So Still Was It That
The Lapping Of The Waves Of The Nile Might Be Heard. Jesus Lay On A
Curtained Couch Of Down, And Could Not Sleep. How Well He Had Slept In
The Hut By The Nile! He Was Hot And Rose And Looked Out Of The Window.
The Stars Sparkled Like Tiny Suns. He Lay Down Again, Prayed To His
Father, And Fell Asleep. The Next Day, When The Feast Was Over, He
Would Find The Rooms In Which The Old Writings Were Kept, And The
Teachers Who Would Instruct Him. But It Was Not Like The Feast That
Comes To An End; It Was Repeated Every Day At The King's Court.
It Happened One Night That The Slaves Stole Around And Woke Each Other.
Jesus Became Aware Of The Subdued Noise And Asked The Cause. One
Approached Him And Whispered, "Pharaoh Weeps!" Like A Mysterious
Breath Of Wind It Went Through The Palace, "Pharaoh Weeps!" Then All
Was Still Again, And The Dreaming Night Lay Over Everything.
Jesus Did Not Lie Down Again On The Soft Cushions, He Rested On The
Cool Floor And Thought. The King Weeps! Arabia And India, Greece And
Rome Have Sent Their Costliest Treasures To Memphis. Phoenician Ships
Cruise Off The Coasts Of Gaul, Albion, And Germany In Order To Obtain
Treasure For The Great Pharaoh. His People Surround Him Day After Day
With Homage, His Life Is At Its Prime. And He Weeps? Was It Not
Perhaps That He Sobbed In His Dreams, Or It May Be Laughed? But The
Watchers Think He Weeps.
Chapter 11 Pg 106
And The Days Passed By. As The King Had Said, The Boy Was Free. But
He Stayed On At The Palace Because He Hoped One Day To Find The Room In
Which The Manuscripts Were Kept. He Often Strolled Through The Town
And The Palm-Grove Down To The River To See His Parents. Thousands Of
Chapter 11 Pg 107Slaves Were Working At The Sluices Of The Stream Which Fertilised The
Land. The Overseer Scourged Them Lustily, So That Many Of Them Fell
Down Exhausted And Even Dying. Jesus Looked On And Denounced Such
Barbarity, Until He, Too, Received A Blow. Then He Went Out To The
Pyramids Where The Pharaohs Slept, And Listened If They Were Not
Weeping. He Went Into The Temple Of Osiris And Looked At The Monster
Idols, Fat, Soulless, Ugly, Between The Rounded Pillars. He Searched
The Palace Untiringly For The Hall In Which The Writings Were Kept, And
At Last He Came Upon It. But It Was Closed: Its Custodians Were
Hunting Jackals And Tigers In The Desert. They Found It Dark And
Dreary There Among The Great Minds Of Old; The Splendour And Luxury Of
The Court Did Not Penetrate To The Hall Of Writings.
Then Nights Came Again When Whispers Ran Through The Halls, "Pharaoh
Weeps." And The Reason, Too, Was Whispered. He Had Caused The Woman
He Loved Best To Be Strangled, And Now The Astrologers Declared That
She Was Innocent. One Day The King Lay On His Couch And Desired That
The Boy From The Nile Should Be Summoned To Fan Him. As The King Was
S "Securus Judicat Orbis
Terrarum." On One Point Only There Seems To Us, As We Have Frequently
Implied, To Be Room For Modification. In The Popular Conception Of
Milton The Poet And The Man Are Imperfectly Combined. We Allow His
Greatness As A Poet, But Deny Him The Poetical Temperament Which Alone
Could Have Enabled Him To Attain It. He Is Looked Upon As A Great, Good,
Reverend, Austere, Not Very Amiable, And Not Very Sensitive Man. The
Author And The Book Are Thus Set At Variance, And The Attempt To
Conceive The Character As A Whole Results In Confusion And
Inconsistency. To Us, On The Contrary, Milton, With All His Strength Of
Will And Regularity Of Life, Seems As Perfect A Representative As Any Of
His Compeers Of The Sensitiveness And Impulsive Passion Of The Poetical
Temperament. We Appeal To His Remarkable Dependence Upon External
Prompting For His Compositions; To The Rapidity Of His Work Under
Excitement, And His Long Intervals Of Unproductiveness; To The Heat And
Fury Of His Polemics; To The Simplicity With Which, Fortunately For Us,
He Inscribes Small Particulars Of His Own Life Side By Side With
Weightiest Utterances On Church And State; To The Amazing Precipitancy
Of His Marriage And Its Rupture; To His Sudden Pliability Upon Appeal To
His Generosity; To His Romantic Self-Sacrifice When His Country Demanded
His Eyes From Him; Above All, To His Splendid Ideals Of Regenerated
Human Life, Such As Poets Alone Either Conceive Or Realize. To Overlook
All This Is To Affirm That Milton Wrote Great Poetry Without Being Truly
A Poet. One More Remark May Be Added, Though Not Required By Thinking
Readers. We Must Beware Of Confounding The Essential With The Accidental
Milton--The Pure Vital Spirit With The Casual Vesture Of The Creeds And
Circumstances Of The Era In Which It Became Clothed With Mortality:--
"They Are Still Immortal
Who, Through Birth's Orient Portal
And Death's Dark Chasm Hurrying To And Fro,
Clothe Their Unceasing Flight
In The Brief Dust And Light
Gathered Around Their Chariots As They Go.
New Shapes They Still May Weave,
New Gods, New Laws, Receive."
Chapter 11 Pg 108
If We Knew For Certain Which Of The Many Causes That Have Enlisted Noble
Minds In Our Age Would Array Milton's Spirit "In Brief Dust And Light,"
Supposing It Returned To Earth In This Nineteenth Century, We Should
Know Which Was The Noblest Of Them All, But We Should Be As Far As Ever
From Knowing A Final And Stereotyped Milton.
Footnotes Pg 109[Footnote 1: A Famous Presbyterian Tract Of The Day, So Called From The
Combined Initials Of The Authors, One Of Whom Was Milton's Old
Instructor, Thomas Young. The "Remonstrant" To Whom Milton Replied Was
Bishop Hall.]
[Footnote 2: This Principle Admitted Of General Application. For
Example, Astrological Books Were To Be Licensed By John Booker, Who
Could By No Means See His Way To Pass The Prognostications Of His Rival
Lilly Without "Many Impertinent Obliterations," Which Made Lilly
Exceeding Wroth.]
[Footnote 3: Two Persons Of This Uncommon Name Are Mentioned In The
State Papers Of Milton's Time--One A Merchant Who Imported A Cargo Of
Timber; The Other A Leatherseller. The Name Also Occurs Once In Pepys.]
[Footnote 4: Rossetti's Sonnet, "On The Refusal Of Aid Between Nations,"
Is An Almost Equally Remarkable Instance.]
[Footnote 5: The Same Is Recorded Of Friedrich Hebbel, The Most Original
Of Modern German Dramatists.]
[Footnote 6: In His "Urim Of Conscience," 1695. This Curious Book
Contains One Of The First English Accounts Of Buddha, Whom The Author
Calls Chacabout (Sakhya Buddha, Apparently), And Of The "Christians Of
St. John" At Bassora.]
[Footnote 7: Ariosto And Marcellus Palingenius. Both These Wrote Before
Ronsard, To Whom The Thought Is Traced By Pattison, And Valvasone, To
Whom Hayley Deems Milton Indebted For It.]
[Footnote 8: We Cannot Agree With Mr. Edmundson That Milton Was In Any
Respect Indebted To Vondel's "Adam's Banishment," Published In 1664.]
[Footnote 9: Theocritus, Idyll I.; Lang's Translation.]
Index Pg 110A.
Adam, Not The Hero Of "Paradise Lost," 155
Adonais Compared With Lycidas, 51
Aldersgate Street, Milton's Home In, 67, 83
"Allegro, L.," 49-50
Andreini, His "Adamo" Supposed To Have Suggested "Paradise Lost," 169
Anglesey, Earl Of, Visits Milton, 186
"Animadversions Upon The Remonstrant," 72
"Apology For Smectymnuus," 72
"Arcades," 44
"Areopagitica, The," 78;
Argument Of, 79-82
Arian Opinions Of Milton, 159, 191
Ariosto, Milton Borrows From, 164
Artillery Walk, Milton's Last House, 144
"At A Solemn Music," 33
Aubrey's Biographical Notices Of Milton, 14, 15, 19, 24, 129, 144, 145
B.
Ball's Life Of Preston, 23
Barbican, Milton's House In The, 96
Index Pg 111
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