Filling each mouth with envy or with praife, And all her jealous monarchs with amaze And rumours loud, that daunt remotest kings; Thy firm unfhaken virtue ever brings Victory home, though new rebellions raise Their Hydra heads, and the falfe North dif plays Her broken league to imp their ferpent-wings, Ver. 2. Filling each mouth] So doctor Newton has printed it from the reading in Milton's manufcript; It was before, in all the printed copies, " And fills each mouth." TODD. Ver. 4. daunt remoteft kings;] Who dreaded the example of England, that their monarchies would be turned. into republicks. T. WARTON. Some editions corruptly read "remoteft things," TODD. Ver. 5. Thy firm unshaken virtue] Valour,, till doctor Newton adopted the manufcript reading, wirtue. In the next line though is, in like manner, admitted inftead of while. TODD. Ver. 7. Their Hydra heads, and the falfe North displays Her broken league to imp their ferpent-wings.] Euripides, Milton's favourite, is the only writer of antiquity that has given wings to the monfter Hydra, Ion. v. 198. ITANON upiλexTor. The word IITANON is controverted. But here perhaps is Milton's authority for the common reading, Our author feems to have taken this idea from a paffage in the Eikon, which he quotes in his Answer, §. x. "He [the king] calls the parliament a many-headed Hydra of government, full of factions, diftractions, &c." Pr. W. i. 396. T. WARTON. Ver. 8. Her broken league] Because the English Parliament held, that the Scotch had broken their Covenant, by Hamilton's march into England. HURD. Ibid. to imp their ferpent-wings.] In falconry, to imp a feather in a hawk's wing, is to add a new piece to a mutilated stump. From the Saxon impan, to ingraft. So Spenfer, of a headlefs trunk, Faer. Qu. iv. ix. 4. "And having ympt the head to it agayne." 9 O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand, Of publick fraud. In vain doth Valour bleed, To imp wings is not uncommon in our old poetry. Thus Spenfer, Hymne of Heavenly Beautie. "Thence gathering plume of perfect fpeculation, "To impe the winges of thy high flying minde." See alfo Fletcher, Purpl. I. C. i. ft. 24. And Shakspeare, Rich. II. A. ii, S. i. Where Mr. Steevens produces other inftances. It occurs alfo in poets much later than Milton. See Reed's Old Pl. vii. 172, 520, and x. 351. T. WARTON. It was formerly in the printed copies "her ferpent-wings." But doctor Newton corrected it, by the manufcript; obferving alfo that ferpent-wings refer to the fame as Hydra heads, and that the infurrections in England were to have been supported by the Scotch army marching into it at the fame time. Topp. Ver. 10. This and the following lines were thus in the printed copies : "For what can war, but acts of war ftill breed, "And publick faith be rescued from the brand." NEWTON. Ver. 13. Of publick fraud.] The Presbyterian Committees and Subcommittees. The grievance fo much complained of by Milton in his History of England. See Birch's edition. Publick fraud is oppofed to publick faith, the fecurity given by the parliament to the City-contributions for carrying on the war. WARBURTON. XVI. To the Lord General CROMWELL *. CROMWELL, our chief of men, who through a cloud Not of war only, but detractions rude, And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 5 fued, * Written in 1652. The prostitution of Miltons Mufe to the celebration of Cromwell, was as inconfiftent and unworthy, as that this enemy to kings, to ancient magnificence, and to all that is venerable and majestick, should have been buried in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. But there is great dignity both of fentiment and expreffion in this Sonnet. Unfortunately, the clofe is an anticlimax to both. After a long flow of perfpicuous and nervous language, the unexpected paufe at "Worcester's laureat wreath," is very emphatical, and has a striking effect. T. WARTON. Ver. 1. This and the following line were in the printed copies thus: "Not of war only, but diftractions rude." But a cloud of war is a claffical expreffion: "Nubem belli," Virg. En. x. 809. NEWTON. Ver. 5. And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud Haft rear'd God's trophies, and his work purfued,] These admirable verses, not only to the mutilation of the integrity of the stanza, but to the injury of Milton's genius, were reduced While Darwen ftream, with blood of Scots imbrued, And Dunbar field refounds thy praifes loud, And Worcester's laureat wreath. Yet much remains To conquer ftill; Peace hath her victories No lefs renown'd than War: New foes arife 9 to the following meagre contraction, in the printed copies of Phillips, Toland, Tonfon, Tickell, and Fenton. "And fought God's battles, and his works pursued." T. WARTON. Ver 5. crowned Fortune] His malignity to Kings aided his imagination in the expreflion of this fublime fentiment. HURD. Ver. 7. While Darwen ftream,] In the printed copies, " Dar. went ftream." The Darwen, or Derwen, is a small river near Prefton in Lancashire; and there Cromwell routed the Scotch Army under Duke Hamilton in Auguft 1648. The battles of Dunbar and Worcester are too well known to be particularised; both fought on the memorable 3d of September, the one in 1650, and the other in 1651. NEWTON. Ver. 9. And Worcester's laureat wreath.] This feems pretty, but is inexact in this place. However, the expreffion alludes to what Cromwell faid of his fuccefs at Worcester, that it was his crowning mercy. HURD. This hemiftich originally stood, "And twenty battles more." Such are often our firft thoughts in a fine paffage. I take it, that one of the effential beauties of the Sonnet is often to carry the pauses into the middle of the lines. Of this our author has given many ftriking examples; and here we difcern the writer whofe ear was tuned to blank verfe. T. WARTON. Ver. 10. Peace hath her victories No lefs renown'd than War:] Cromwell is addreffed in a similar manner by a letter from Mr. William Erberry, dated July 19, 1652, just about the time this Sonnet was written; which Threatening to bind our fouls with fecular chains: Help us to fave free confcience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whofe gofpel is their maw. begins," Sir, Greate thinges God has done by you in warr, and good things men expect from you in peace." Nicholls's State-Pap. p. 88. In the printed copies before doctor Newton's edition, the lines were thus: "Peace has her victories "No lefs than those of war." And afterwards "in fecular chains." Todd. Ver. 12. fecular chains:] The Minifters moved Cromwell to lend the secular arm to suppress fectaries. WARBURTON. Ver. 14. Of hireling wolves, whofe gospel is their maw.] Hence it appears that this Sonnet was written about May, 1652. By hireling wolves, he means the presbyterian clergy, who poffeffed the revenues of the parochial benefices on the old constitution, and whofe conformity he fuppofes to be founded altogether on motives of emolument. See Note on Lycidas, v. 114. There was now no end of innovation and reformation. In 1649, it was propofed in parliament to abolish Tithes, as Jewish and antichristian, and as they were authorised only by the ceremonial law of Mofes, which was abrogated by the gospel. But as the propofal tended to endanger lay-impropriations, the notion of their divine Right was allowed to have fome weight, and the bufinefs was poftponed. This was an argument in which Selden had abufed his great learning. Milton's party were of opinion, that as every parish should elect, so it should respectively sustain, its own minifter by publick contribution. Others propofed to throw the tithes of the whole kingdom into one common stock, and to distribute them according to the size of the parishes. Some of the Independents urged, that Chrift's minifters should have no fettled property at all, but be like the apoftles who were fent out to preach without staff or ferip, without common neceffaries; to whom Chrift faid, Lacked ye any thing? A fucceffion of miracles was therefore to be worked, to prevent the faints from ftarving. See Baxter's Life, p. 115. Kennet's Cafe of Impropriations, p. 268. |