(Later Milton would accuse 'William Shakespeare' of being the King's closet companion during the period of his incarceration - in essence, the King's advisor as he composed his 'idolatrous' book - the Eikon Basilike.)
Godlike shapes and forms
376: Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
377: And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;
378: *Though of their Names in heav'nly Records now
379: Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
380: By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.*
Oxford was deliberately 'blotted and rased' from the rolls of fame/Book of life by a 'conspiracy of Virtue'.
Milton -- I sing the starry axis and the singing hosts in the sky, *and of the gods suddenly destroyed in their own shrines*.
Oxford ‘destroyed’ in his own shrine:
Milton
On Shakespeare. 1630
WHat needs my Shakespear for his honour'd Bones,
The labour of an age in piled Stones,
Or that his HALLOW'D RELIQUES should be hid
Under a Star-ypointing PYRAMID?
Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame,
What need'st thou such weak witnes of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.
For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu'd Book,
Those DELPHICK lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of it self bereaving,
Dost make us MARBLE with too much conceaving;
And so Sepulcher'd in such POMP dost lie,
THAT KINGS for such a Tomb WOULD WISH TO DIE.
****************************
APOLLO from his SHRINE/ Can no more divine,/
With hollow shreik the steep of DELPHOS leaving. - Milton
**************************************
John Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" (1629)
...The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorifie:
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep, [ 155 ]
The wakefull trump of doom must thunder through the deep,
XVII
With such a horrid clang
As on mount Sinai rang
While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake:
The aged Earth agast [ 160 ]
With terrour of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the center shake,
When at the worlds last session,
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.
XVIII
And then at last our bliss [ 165 ]
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
Th' old Dragon under ground,
In *straiter limits bound*,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway, [ 170 ]
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail,
Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.
XIX,
The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. [ 175 ]
APOLLO from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of DELPHOS leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. [ 180 ]
**************************************
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/nativity/notes.shtml#intro
Introduction. John Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" is significant for its merit alone, though this remarkable poem is also important in the context of the artist's career. His first major work in English, the nativity ode reflects "his desire to attempt the highest subjects and to take on the role of bardic Poet-Priest" (Barbara Lewalski, Life of John Milton 38). Milton himself declares such ambition in a letter to his friend Charles Diodati: "I sing to the peace-bringing God descended from heaven, and the blessed generations covenanted in the sacred books,… I sing the starry axis and the singing hosts in the sky, *and of the gods suddenly destroyed in their own shrines*." ("Elegia sexta"). Milton's lofty tone suits he elevation of his artistry, as the nativity ode is the "first realization" of Milton's high poetic aspirations (Lewalski 37).
Stella Revard writes that the poem "marks Milton's coming of age as a Christian English writer" (Milton and the Tangles of Neaera's Hair: The Making of the 1645 Poems 64). Milton's header, "Compos'd 1629,"dates the poem as written in Milton's twenty-first year, leading A.S.P. Woodhouse to call the Ode a coming-of-age poem (Variorum Commentary 41). This is perhaps what Milton intended: the poem appears first in his 1645 Poems, after a frontispiece engraving of himself supposedly at twenty-one. Moreover, as Barbara Lewalski explains, the poem "displays elements that remain constants in Milton's poetry: allusiveness, revisionism, mixture of genres, stunning originality, cosmic scope, prophetic voice" (Lewalski 46). According to Stanley Fish, Milton's works all voice the same concerns (Fish 3). It makes sense, then, that Milton's first major work speaks to his life-long preoccupations.
*************************************
Milton
On Shakespeare. 1630
WHat needs my Shakespear for his honour'd Bones,
The labour of an age in piled Stones,
Or that his HALLOW'D RELIQUES should be hid
Under a Star-ypointing PYRAMID?
Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame, [ 5 ]
What need'st thou such weak witnes of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.
For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each heart [ 10 ]
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu'd Book,
Those DELPHICK lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of it self bereaving,
Dost make us MARBLE with too much conceaving;
And so Sepulcher'd in such POMP dost lie, [ 15 ]
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die
**************************************
A DISCOURSE OF WIT.
BY David Abercromby, M. D.
Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit.LONDON, Printed for John Weld at the Crown between the two Tem|ple Gates in Fleetstreet, 1686.
3. I cannot then pretend to give you a true and genuine Notion of Wit, but an imperfect, and rude inchoate description thereof, yet so general and comprehensive, that it contains all such Creatures, as without any violence done to the Word, we may truely call Witty. Yet shall I not say with a great Man of this Age, that Wit is, un je ne scay quoy, I know not what: For this would be to say no|thing at all, and an easie answer to all difficulties, and no solution to any. Neither shall I call it a certain Liveliness, or Vivacity of the Mind inbred, or radicated in its Nature, which the Latines seem to insinuate by the word Ingenium; nor the subtlest operation of the Soul above the reach of meer matter, which perhaps is mean't by the French, who concieve Wit to be a Spiritual thing, or a Spi|rit L'esprit. Nor with others, that 'tis a certain acuteness of Undestanding, some men possess in a higher degree, the Life of discourse, as Salt, with|out which nothing is relished, a Ce|lestial Fire, a Spiritual Light, and what not. Such and the like Expressi|ons contain more of POMP THAN OF TRUTH, and are fitter to make us talkative on this Subject, than to en|lighten our Understandings.
***************************************
George Herbert
What I have treasur’d in my memorie !
Since, if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.
I finde there quarries of pil’d vanities,
But shreds of holinesse, that dare not venture
To shew their face, since crosse to thy decrees :
There the circumference earth is, heav’n the centre.
In so much dregs the quintessence is small :
The spirit and good extract of my heart
Comes to about the many hundredth part.
Yet, Lord, restore thine image, heare my call :
And though my hard heart scarce to thee can grone,
Remember that thou once didst write in stone.
**************************************
Salvation History, Poetic Form, and the Logic of Time in Milton's
Nativity Ode
M.J. Doherty
...It helps that Milton's Muse, like the prophet of Isaiah, chaptervi, joins and "Angel Choir,/ From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire" (27-28). The same kind of poetic parallelism to the liturgical readings of Epiphany shows up in the themes of the coming of the Incarnate Son as the Light and the singing of the New Song who casts out idols. The Lord is everlasting light (Luke iii), the light to the Gentiles (Isa. xlix) that comes at the acceptable time on the day of salvation, the light which, by leading of the star, subordinates all kings and all nations to itself...
...Milton demonstrates the coming of the light by describing the evacuation of darkness, the emptying out of the places of the gods in the earth, from the inmost places of material substance - "And the chill Marble seems to sweat,/ While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat" (195-196) - to the outermost boundary of the "mooned Ashtaroth" (220) From the arches roof of the heavens and the shrine of Apollo at Delphos to the humblest evacuated urn, Christ's light penetrates space, completely expunging darkness. As Milton describes the pagan places of EGYPT, the power of hell is contracted into one spot, Memphis, in Osiris's complete perversion of religion: but in his "sacred chest" Osiris can no longer be at rest because the holy infant reigns.
***********************************
thence on the Snowy top
535: Thir highest Heav'n; or on the DELPHIAN Cliff,
John Milton, Paradise Lost
373: Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band
374: The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood
375: Their great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms
376: Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
377: And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones;
378: *Though of their Names in heav'nly Records now
379: Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
380: By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.* [Oxford's
'idolatrous' representational practices]
381: Nor had they yet among the Sons of EVE
382: Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth,
383: Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
384: By falsities and lyes the greatest part
385: Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
386: God their Creator, and th' invisible
387: Glory of him, that made them, to transform
388: Oft to the Image of a Brute, adorn'd
389: With gay Religions full of POMP and Gold,
390: And Devils to adore for Deities:
391: Then were they known to men by various Names,
392: And various Idols through the Heathen World.
393: Say, Muse, their Names then known, who first, who
394: last,
395: Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,
396: At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
397: Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
398: While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof?
399: The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell
400: Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix
401: Their Seats long after next the Seat of God,
402: Their Altars by his Altar, Gods ador'd
403: Among the Nations round, and durst abide
404: JEHOVAH thundring out of SION, thron'd
405: Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd
406: Within his Sanctuary it self their Shrines,
407: Abominations; and with cursed things
408: His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan'd,
409: And with their darkness durst affront his light.
410: First MOLOCH, horrid King besmear'd with blood
411: Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
412: Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
413: Their childrens cries unheard, that past through fire
414: To his grim Idol.
(snip)
450: For those the Race of ISRAEL oft forsook
451: Their living strength, and unfrequented left
452: His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
453: To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low
454: Bow'd down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
455: Of despicable foes. With these in troop
456: Came ASTORETH, whom the PHOENICIANS call'd
457: ASTARTE, Queen of Heav'n, with crescent Horns;
458: To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon
459: SIDONIAN Virgins paid their Vows and Songs,
460: In SION also not unsung, where stood
461: Her Temple on th' offensive Mountain, built
462: By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,
463: Beguil'd by fair Idolatresses, fell
464: To Idols foul. THAMMUZ came next behind,
465: Whose annual wound in LEBANON allur'd
466: The SYRIAN Damsels to lament his fate
467: In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
468: While smooth ADONIS from his native Rock
469: Ran purple to the Sea, suppos'd with blood
470: Of THAMMUZ yearly wounded: the Love-tale
471: Infected SIONS daughters with like heat,
472: Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
473: EZEKIEL saw, when by the Vision led
474: His eye survay'd the dark Idolatries
475: Of alienated JUDAH. Next came one
476: Who mourn'd in earnest, when the Captive Ark
477: Maim'd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
478: In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge,
479: Where he fell flat, and sham'd his Worshipers:
480: DAGON his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
481: And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high
482: Rear'd in AZOTUS, dreaded through the Coast
483: Of PALESTINE, in GATH and ASCALON,
484: And ACCARON and GAZA's frontier bounds.
485: Him follow'd RIMMON, whose delightful Seat
486: Was fair DAMASCUS, on the fertil Banks
487: Of ABBANA and PHARPHAR, lucid streams.
488: He also against the house of God was bold:
489: A Leper once he lost and gain'd a King,
490: AHAZ his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
491: Gods Altar to disparage and displace
492: For one of SYRIAN mode, whereon to burn
493: His odious offrings, and adore the Gods
494: Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear'd
495: A CREW who under Names of old Renown,
496: OSIRIS, ISIS, ORUS and their Train
497: *With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus'd*
498: FANATIC EGYPT and her Priests, to seek
499: Thir wandring Gods disguis'd in brutish forms
500: Rather then human. Nor did ISRAEL scape
501: Th' infection when their borrow'd Gold compos'd
502: The Calf in OREB: and the Rebel King
503: Doubl'd that sin in BETHEL and in DAN,
504: Lik'ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,
505: JEHOVAH, who in one Night when he pass'd
506: From EGYPT marching, equal'd with one stroke
507: Both her first born and all her bleating Gods.
508: BELIAL came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd
509: Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
510: Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood
511: Or Altar smoak'd; yet who more oft then hee
512: In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest
513: Turns Atheist, as did ELY'S Sons, who fill'd
514: With lust and violence the house of God.
515: In Courts and Palaces he also Reigns
516: And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse
517: Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,
518: And injury and outrage: And when Night
519: Darkens the Streets, then wander forth the Sons
520: Of BELIAL, flown with insolence and wine.
521: Witness the Streets of SODOM, and that night
522: In GIBEAH, when hospitable Dores
523: Yielded thir Matrons to prevent worse rape.
524: These were the prime in order and in might;
525: The rest were long to tell, though far renown'd,
526: Th' IONIAN Gods, of JAVANS Issue held
527: Gods, yet confest later then Heav'n and Earth
528: Thir boasted Parents; TITAN Heav'ns first born
529: With his enormous brood, and birthright seis'd
530: By younger SATURN, he from mightier JOVE
531: His own and RHEA'S Son like measure found;
532: So JOVE usurping reign'd: these first in CREET
533: And IDA known, thence on the Snowy top
535: Thir highest Heav'n; or on the DELPHIAN Cliff,
536: Or in DODONA, and through all the bounds
537: Of DORIC Land; or who with SATURN old
538: Fled over ADRIA to th' HESPERIAN Fields,
539: And ore the CELTIC roam'd the utmost Isles.
540: All these and more came flocking; but with looks
541: Down cast and damp, yet such wherein appear'd
542: Obscure som glimps of joy, to have found thir chief
543: Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost
544: In loss it self; which on his count'nance cast
545: Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride
546: Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
547: Semblance of worth not substance, gently rais'd
548: Their fainted courage, and dispel'd their fears.
**************************************
Milton, Paradise Regained
451: The other service was thy chosen task,
452: To be a liar in four hundred mouths;
453: For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
454: Yet thou pretend'st to truth! all oracles
455: By thee are given, and what confessed more true
456: Among the nations? That hath been thy craft,
457: By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
458: But what have been thy answers? what but dark,
459: Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
460: Which they who asked have seldom understood,
461: And, not well understood, as good not known?
462: Who ever, by consulting at thy shrine,
463: Returned the wiser, or the more instruct
464: To fly or follow what concerned him most,
465: And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
466: For God hath justly given the nations up
467: To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
468: Idolatrous. But, when his purpose is
469: Among them to declare his providence,
470: To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
471: But from him, or his Angels president
472: In every province, who, themselves disdaining
473: To approach thy temples, give thee in command
474: What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say
475: To thy adorers? Thou, with trembling fear,
476: Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st;
477: Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
478: But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;
479: No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
481: And thou no more with POMP and sacrifice
482: Shalt be enquired at DELPHOS or elsewhere--
483: At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
484: God hath now sent his living Oracle
485: Into the world to teach his final will,
486: And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell
487: In pious hearts, an inward oracle
488: To all truth requisite for men to know."
489:
490: So spake our Saviour;
*************************************
Milton
After these appear'd
495: A CREW who under Names of old Renown,
496: OSIRIS, ISIS, ORUS and their Train
497: *With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus'd*
498: FANATIC EGYPT and her Priests, to seek
499: Thir wandring Gods disguis'd in brutish forms
500: Rather then human.
**************************************
Oxford/Shakespeare/Comus (demonic eloquence)
Milton, John: Comus
118: COMUS enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the
119: other: with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of
120: wild
121: beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel
122: glistering.
123: They come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in
124: their hands.
125:
126:
127: COMUS. The star that bids the shepherd fold
128: Now the top of heaven doth hold;
129: And the gilded car of day
130: His glowing axle doth allay
131: In the steep Atlantic stream;
132: And the slope sun his upward beam
133: Shoots against the dusky pole,
134: Pacing toward the other goal
135: Of his chamber in the east.
136: Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast,
137: Midnight shout and revelry,
138: Tipsy dance and jollity.
139: Braid your locks with rosy twine,
140: Dropping odours, dropping wine.
141: Rigour now is gone to bed;
142: And Advice with scrupulous head,
143: Strict Age, and sour Severity,
144: With their grave saws, in slumber lie.
145: We, that are of purer fire,
146: Imitate the starry quire,
147: Who, in their nightly watchful spheres,
148: Lead in swift round the months and years.
149: The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,
150: Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
151: And on the tawny sands and shelves
152: Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
153: By dimpled brook and fountain-brim,
154: The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim,
155: Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:
156: What hath night to do with sleep?
157: Night hath better sweets to prove;
158: Venus now wakes, and wakens Love.
159: Come, let us our rights begin;
160: 'T is only daylight that makes sin,
161: Which these dun shades will ne'er report.
162: Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport,
163: Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
164: Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame,
165: That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb
166: Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom,
167: And makes one blot of all the air!
168: Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,
169: Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend
170: Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end
171: Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,
172: Ere the blabbing eastern scout,
173: The nice Morn on the Indian steep,
174: From her cabined loop-hole peep,
175: And to the tell-tale Sun descry
176: Our concealed solemnity.
178: In a LIGHT FANTASTIC round.
179:
180: The Measure.
181:
182: Break off, break off! I feel the different pace
183: Of some chaste footing near about this ground.
184: Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees;
185: Our number may affright. Some virgin sure
186: (For so I can distinguish by mine art)
187: Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms,
188: And to my wily trains: I shall ere long
189: Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed
190: About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl
191: My dazzling spells into the spongy air,
192: Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion,
193: And give it false presentments, lest the place
194: And my quaint habits breed astonishment,
195: And put the damsel to suspicious flight;
196: Which must not be, for that's against my course.
197: I, under fair pretence of friendly ends,
198: And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,
199: Baited with reasons not unplausible,
200: Wind me into the easy-hearted man,
201: And hug him into snares. When once her eye
202: Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,
203: I shall appear some harmless villager
204: Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.
205: But here she comes; I fairly step aside,
206: And hearken, if I may her business hear.
207:
208: The LADY enters.
209:
210: LADY. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true,
211: My best guide now. Methought it was the sound
212: Of riot and ill-managed merriment,
213: Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe
214: Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,
215: When, for their teeming flocks and granges full,
216: In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,
217: And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth
218: To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence
219: Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else
220: Shall I inform my unacquainted feet
221: In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?
**************************************
Thou in our wonder and ASTONISHMENT
Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.
**************************************
Pondering Satan's Shield in Milton's Paradise Lost
English Literary renaissance (0013-8312) dobranski yr.2005 vol:35 iss:
3
pg:490
In this essay I would like to address how Satan's "ponderous shield"(I, 284) from this same passage also advances Milton's Christian epic. Commentators have traditionally glossed the lunar metaphor that Milton uses for Satan's shield as either an allusion to Achilles'"massive shield flashing far and wide / like a full round moon," or an echo of Radigund's lunar armament as she challenges Artegall in The Faerie Queene.5 I want to offer a new reading of Milton's epic simile by turning to contemporary discoveries in the natural world. When examined in the context of Renaissance warfare and, perhaps surprisingly, seventeenth-century animal histories, Satan's shield symbolizes, updates, and subverts his heroic aspirations, and simultaneously it exposes his amphibious nature, creeping from lake to land, and transgressing from heaven to hell.
To understand fully the implications of the devil's armament, we first need to recall that Milton had come to accept a monistic concept of the body and soul by the time he wrote Paradise Lost. His mature works reflect the belief that the body and soul are different degrees of the same substance. As Raphael succinctly puts it, "one first matter all, /
Indued with various forms, various degrees / Of substance, and in things that live, of life" (V, 472-74). When, accordingly, Satan falls from heaven, his fall is not only moral but also material (and spatial and temporal); that is, Satan's spirit becomes less rarefied, and he literally hardens (I, 572).6 If, as Raphael goes on to explain, God's creations are "more refined, more spirituous, and pure, / As nearer to him placed or nearer tending" (V, 475-76), then, conversely, when Satan turns away from God, he must become less refined, less spirituous, less pure. Satan's dependence on material weapons suggests this corporeal decline while pointing up his destructive narcissism: the devil is attracted to things like himself that are more matter than spirit. Instead of returning to God and seeking forgiveness, he again and again puts his faith in things, whether a sword, shield, or apple.
Within this philosophical context Satan's armament in particular illustrates the folly of his rebellion. Unlike the spiritual armor that St. Paul described in his letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 6.11-17), Satan's shield actually exists but it fails to protect him, first from Abdiel (VI, 192-93), then from Michael (VI, 323-28), until finally the rebels drop their shields while fleeing the Son:
they ASTONISHED all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropped;
O'er shields and helms, and helmèd heads he rode
Of thrones and mighty seraphim prostráte. (VI, 838-41)
That the Son rides roughshod over the rebels' weapons symbolizes both his imminent victory over Satan and the ascendance of a new type of heroism that will obviate traditional emblems of war. While this image of discarded armament is hardly original to Milton, the specific term"astonished" punningly suggests the link between the rebels' material arms and their own material debasement: the rebels may drop their weapons, but their forms, like their hearts, are already becoming "stony."7 Later, Milton will repeat this image when Satan, returning to Hell, expects to hear his cohorts'"high applause" but is instead confronted with "A dismal universal hiss" as God changes the rebels into serpents (X, 505, 508). Once again, the devils' moral and material fall is figured in their hardening forms and falling weapons: "down their arms / Down fell both spear and shield, down they as fast" (X,541-42).8 Milton invokes, too, Dante's concept of contrapasso as Satan and the rebels are "punished in the shape he sinned" (X, 516). They not only take the shape of snakes, but also, having taken up material arms in a war against God, they fittingly come to resemble their own lost shields, fallen and hardened.
******************************
_Comus_, Milton
Comus: Nay Lady sit; if I but wave this wand
Your nerves are all chain'd up in Alablaster,
And you a statue; or as Daphne was
Root-bound, that fled Apollo
Lady: Fool do not boast,
Thou canst not touch the freedom of my minde
With all thy charms, although this corporal rinde
Thou hast immanacl'd, while Heav'n sees good
******************************
Then thou our FANCY of it self bereaving,
Doth make us MARBLE with too much conceaving;
_Imagination and the Presence of Shakespeare in Paradise Lost_. By Paul Stevens. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
Review by Nigel Smith
Imagination and the Presence of Shakespeare in 'Paradise Lost' is probably a mistitled book. Professor Stevens is certainly concerned with theories of imagination and the way in which these theories helped to determine the language of Milton's epic. There is also a consideration of Shakespeare's presence, confined mostly to instances in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ and _The Tempest_. The significance of echoes from other plays are discussed, though a central consideration of echoes from the tragedies would have produced a very different work.
As the book stands, we are shown how Milton takes the Shakespearean incarnation of FANCY and modifies it, so that it becomes associated,via COMUS, with evil in Paradise Lost, unless it is governed by Reason, so reflecting the divine.
*****************************
Ascham, The Scholemaster
**But I know as many, or mo, and some, sometyme my deare frendes, for whose sake I hate going into that countrey the more, who, partyng out of England feruent in the loue of Christes doctrine, and well furnished with the feare of God, returned out of Italie worse transformed, than euer was any in CIRCES Court. I know diuerse, that went out of England, men of innocent life, men of excellent learnyng, who returned out of Italie, not onely with worse maners, but also with lesse learnyng: neither so willing to liue orderly, nor yet so hable to speake learnedlie, as they were at home, before they went abroad. And why? Plato yt wise writer, and worthy traueler him selfe, telleth the cause why. He went into Sicilia, a countrey, no nigher Italy by site of place, than Italie that is now, is like Sicilia that was then, in all corrupt maners and licenciousnes of life. Plato found in Sicilia, euery Citie full of vanitie, full of factions, euen as Italie is now. And as Homere, like a learned Poete, doth feyne, that CIRCES, by pleasant inchantmentes, did turne men into beastes, some into Swine, som
| Plat. ad Dionys. Epist. 3.
The fruits of vayne pleasure.
Causes why men returne out of Italie, lesse learned and worse manered. Homer and Plato ioyned and expounded. A Swyne. An Asse. A Foxe. aphrosyne, Quid, et vnde. |
| {1. lethen {2. dysmathian {3. achrosynen {4. ybrin. |
(SNIP)
But I am affraide, that ouer many of our trauelers into Italie, do not exchewe the way to CIRCES Court: but go, and ryde, and runne, and flie thether, they make great hast to cum to her: they make great sute to serue her: yea, I could point out some with my finger, that neuer had gone out of England, but onelie to serue CIRCES, in Italie. Vanitie and vice, and any licence to ill liuyng in England was counted stale and rude vnto them. And so, beyng
| Plat. ad Dio. Psal. 32. Psal. 33. A trewe Picture of a knight of Circes Court. |
| The Italians iudgement of Englishmen
brought vp in Italie.
The Italian diffameth him selfe, to
shame the Englishe man. An English man Italianated.
|
It is pitie, that those, which haue
authoritie and
charge, to allow and dissalow bookes to be printed,
be no more circumspect herein, than they are. Ten Sermons
at Paules Crosse do not so moch good for mouyng men to trewe
doctrine, as one of those bookes do harme, with inticing men
to ill liuing. Yea, I say farder, those bookes, tend not so moch
to corrupt honest liuyng, as they do, to subuert trewe Religion.
Mo Papistes be made, by your mery bookes of Italie, than by
your earnest bookes of Louain.************************************
Gabriel Harvey's satirical portrait of the Earl of Oxford:
Speculum Tuscanismi
Since Galatea came in, and Tuscanism gan usurp,
Vanity above all: villainy next her, stateliness Empress
No man but minion, stout, lout, plain, swain, quoth a Lording:
No words but valorous, no works but womanish only.
For life Magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in show,
In deed most frivolous, not a look but Tuscanish always.
His cringing side neck, eyes glancing, fisnamy smirking,
With forefinger kiss, and brave embrace to the footward.
Large bellied Cod-pieced doublet, uncod-pieced half hose,
Straight to the dock like a shirt, and close to the britch like a
diveling.
A little Apish flat couched fast to the pate like an oyster,
French camarick ruffs, deep with a whiteness starched to the purpose.
Every one A per se A, his terms and braveries in print,
Delicate in speech, quaint in array: conceited in all points,
In Courtly guiles a passing singular odd man,
For Gallants a brave Mirror, a Primrose of Honour,
A Diamond for nonce, a fellow peerless in England.
Not the like discourser for Tongue, and head to be found out,
Not the like resolute man for great and serious affairs,
Not the like Lynx to spy out secrets and privities of States,
Eyed like to Argus, eared like to Midas, nos'd like to Naso,
Wing'd like to Mercury, fittst of a thousand for to be employ'd,
This, nay more than this, doth practice of Italy in one year.
None do I name, but some do I know, that a piece of a twelve month
Hath so perfited outly and inly both body, both soul,
That none for sense and senses half matchable with them.
A vulture's smelling, Ape's tasting, sight of an eagle,
A spider's touching, Hart's hearing, might of a Lion.
Compounds of wisdom, wit, prowess, bounty, behavior,
All gallant virtues, all qualities of body and soul.
O thrice ten hundred thousand times blessed and happy,
Blessed and happy travail, Travailer most blessed and happy.
