The house of Pindarus, when temple' and tow'r
Went to the ground: and the repeated air
Of sad Electra's poet had the pow'r

To save th' Athenian walls from ruin bare.

IX.

To a virtuous young Lady.

LADY, that in the prime of earliest youth
Wisely hast shunn'd the broad way and the
And with those few art eminently seen,

11. -temple and tow'r] See note, P. R. iii. 268. E.

12. and the repeated air &c.] I suppose this refers to a passage in Plutarch's Life of Lysander. When that general had taken Athens, he proposed to change the government. Some say he moved in council that the Athe

nians might be reduced to slavery,
when at the same time Erianthus
the Theban proposed wholly to
destroy the city, and leave the
country desolate: but a little af-
terwards, at an entertainment of
the captains, one of them re-
peated some verses out of Eu-
ripides's Electra, beginning thus,

Electra, oh unhappy queen!
Whither wou'd you fly? return;
Your absence the forsaken groves
And desert palace seem to mourn.

This struck them, and gave
them occasion to reflect, how
barbarous it would appear to lay
that city in ruin; which had been
renowned for the birth and edu-
cation of so many famous men,
είτα μέντοι συνουσίας γενομένης των

ἡγεμονων παρα ποτον, και τινος Φωκέως ασαντος εκ της Ευριπίδου Ηλεκτρας την παροδον, ἧς й

αρχή,

green,

Αγάμεμνονος ω κορα, ηλυθον Ηλεκτρα Ποτι σαν αγροτειραν αυλαν Παντας επικλασθήναι, και φανηναι σχέτλιον έργον, την οὕτως ευκλέα και τοιουτους άνδρας φέρουσαν ανελειν και διεργασασθαι την πολιν. Vol. i. p. 441. edit. Paris. 1624.

12. The lines of Euripides are at v. 168. It appears, however, that Lysander ordered the walls and fortifications to be demolished. See Plutarch. Opp. tom. ii. Vit. p. 807. Par. 1572. 8vo.

By the epithet sad, Milton denominates the pathetic character of Euripides. Repeated signifies recited. But it has been ingeniously suggested, that the epithet sad belongs to Electra, who very often calls herself OIKTPA, TAAAINA, &c. in Euripides's play; and says, that all the city gave her the same appellation, κικλησκουσι δε μ' ΑΘΛΙΑΝ Ηλεκ τραν πολιηται.” T. Warton.

14. To save th' Athenian walls by ruin bare.] See our author's Psalm vii. 60.

Fall on his crown with ruin steep. The meaning in both instances is obvious and similar.

This is one of Milton's best. Sonnets. T. Warton.

That labour up the hill of heav'nly truth, The better part with Mary and with Ruth Chosen thou hast; and they that overween, And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen, No anger find in thee, but pity' and ruth. Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light,

5

10

And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure

Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends
Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,

Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure.

5. with Mary and with Ruth] So it is in Milton's Manuscript, and in the edition of 1673. In the first edition of 1645 it was falsely printed

and the reader may see parallel instances in Spenser's Faery Queen, b. i. cant. 6. st. 39. and b. vii. cant. 6. st. 38.

11. And hope that reaps not shame.] Ελπις ου καταισχυνει. Rom. v. 5. Hurd.

-with Mary and the Ruth. 6. overween,] Par. Lost, 12. Thou, when the bridegroom x. 878. "Him overweening to with his feastful friends] Feast"over-reach." See note on Co-ful is an epithet in Spenser. He mus, 309. T. Warton.

7. And at thy growing virtues] In the Manuscript it was at first,

And at thy blooming virtue or prospering.

8.-but pity' and ruth] Here Ruth and ruth are made to rhyme to each other, and it may perhaps offend the niceness of modern ears that the same word should rhyme to itself though in different senses: but our old poets were not so very delicate,

alludes to the midnight feasting of the Jews before the consummation of marriage. T. Warton.

13. Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,] Instead of this line he had written at first,

Opens the door of bliss that hour of

night:

but he rightly altered it, the better to accommodate it to the parable to which he is alluding. See Matt. xxv.

X.

To the Lady Margaret Ley.*

DAUGHTER to that good Earl, once President

Of England's Council, and her Treasury,
Who liv'd in both unstain'd with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content,
Till sad the breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chæronea, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent.

Though later born than to have known the days
Wherein your father flourish'd, yet by you,
Madam, methinks I see him living yet;

We have given the title which is in Milton's Manuscript, To the Lady Margaret Ley. She was the daughter of Sir James Ley, whose singular learning and abilities raised him through all the great posts of the law, till he came to be made Earl of Marlborough, and Lord High Treasurer, and Lord President of the Council to King James I. He died in an advanced age, and Milton attributes his death to the breaking of the Parliament; and it is true that the Parliament was dissolved the 10th of March, 1628-9, and he died on the 14th of the same month. He left several sons and daughters; and the Lady Margaret was married to Captain Hobson of the Isle of Wight. It appears from the accounts of Milton's life, that in the year 1643 he used frequently to visit this lady and her husband, and about that time we may sup

VOL. IV.

5

10

pose that this Sonnet was composed.

6. -as that dishonest victory &c.] This victory was gained by Philip of Macedon over the Athenians and their allies; and the news being brought to Athens, that old man eloquent, Isocrates, who was near a hundred years old, died within a few days, being determined not to survive the liberties of his country. · ετελεύτα τον βίον επι

Χαιρωνίδου άρχοντος, ολίγαις ήμεραις ὕστερον της εν Χαιρωνεια μάχης, δυοιν δεοντα βεβιωκως έκατον ετη, γνωμη χρησάμενος, άμα τοις αγαθοις της πόλεως συγκαταλυσαι τον ἑαυτου βιον. Dionysius Halicarnass. de Isocrate, vol. ii. p. 150. edit. Hudson. Plutarch says, that he abstained from food for four days, and so put a period to his life, having lived 98, or as some say 100 years. See Plutarch's Lives of the ten Orators, vol. ii. p. 837. edit. Paris, 1624.

So well your words his noble virtues praise,
That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to possess them, honour'd Margaret.

XI.

On the detraction which followed upon my writing certain treatises.*

A BOOK was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,
And woven close, both matter, form, and stile;
The subject new: it walk'd the town a while,
Numb'ring good intellects; now seldom por'd on.

* When Milton published his books of Divorce, he was greatly condemned by the Presbyterian clergy, whose advocate and champion he had been before. He published his Tetrachordon or Expositions upon the four chief places in Scripture, which treat of marriage or nullities in marriage, in 1645; and soon after we may suppose he composed these two Sonnets, which were first printed in the edition of 1673, and to which we have prefixed the title that he himself has in the Manuscript.

1. A book was writ of late &c.] In the Manuscript he had written at first,

I writ a book of late call'd Tetrachordon,

And weav'd in close, both matter, form, and stile;

It went off well about the town a while, Numb'ring good wits, but now is seldom por❜d on.

The reader will readily agree, that it was altered for the better.

1. A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon,] This elaborate discussion, unworthy in

many respects of Milton, and in which much acuteness of argument, and comprehension of reading, were idly thrown away, was received with contempt, or rather ridicule, as we learn from Howel's Letters. A better proof that it was treated with neglect is, that it was attacked by two nameless and obscure writers only; one of whom Milton calls, a Serving-man turned Solicitor! Our author's divorce was on Platonic principles. He held, that disagreement of mind was a better cause of separation than adultery or frigidity. Here was a fair opening for the laughers. For this doctrine Milton was summoned before the Lords. But they not approving his accusers, the presbyterian clergy, or thinking the business too speculative, he was quickly dismissed. On this occasion Milton commenced hostilities against the Presbyterians. He illustrates his own system in this line of Par. Lost, ix. 372.

Go, for thy stay, not free, absents

thee more.

Cries the stall-reader, Bless us! what a word on
A title page is this! and some in file

Stand spelling false, while one might walk to MileEnd Green. Why is it harder, Sirs, than Gordon, Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp?

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek, That would have made Quintilian stare and Thy age, like ours, O Soul of Sir John Cheek, Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, When thou taught'st Cambridge, and King Edward