Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms, They that have done this deed are honourable : I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: I am no orator as Brutus is; But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, That loves my friend; and that they know full well Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths! Julius Cæsar, Act iii., Sc. 2. 1 Pompey's statue, a statue erected in honour of Pompey, Cæsar's great rival, and whom Cæsar had defeated in the battle of Pharsalia, 48 B.C. 2 Dint of pity, the impression of pity. 3 Vesture, clothing; in this case Cæsar's mantle. 4 There were an Antony, there would be an Antony who would ruffle, etc. BOLINGBROKE'S ENTRY INTO LONDON.1 Enter YORK2 and his DUCHESS. Duch. My lord, you told me you would tell the rest, When weeping made you break the story off, Of our two cousins3 coming into London. York. Where did I leave? Duch. At that sad stop, my lord, Where rude, misgoverned hands, from windows' tops, Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head. York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke,— Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed, 4 Which his aspiring rider seemed to know, With slow, but stately pace, kept on his course. Duch. Alack, poor Richard! where rode he the whilst? After a well-graced actor leaves the stage 1 Bolingbroke. Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, and cousin of Richard II., whom he deposed and succeeded as Henry IV. Called Bolingbroke from a small town of that name in Lincolnshire, where he was born. 2 York. Edmund Langley, duke of York, the fourth son of Edward III., and uncle of Bolingbroke. 3 Our two Cousins, Richard II. and Bolingbroke. 4 Aspiring, ambitious. 5 Casements, a window, or part of a window, that opens on hinges. 6 Visage, the countenance or look of a person. 7 Painted imagery. The young and old looking through the casements made the walls appear like painted tapestry or cloth. Thinking his prattle to be tedious: Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes That had not God, for some strong purpose, steeled But Heaven hath a hand in these events; To whose high will be bound our calm contents. King Richard II., Act v., Sc. 2. JOHN MILTON. BORN in Bread Street, London. Educated at St. Paul's School, and Christ's College, Cambridge. Travelled through France and Italy, meeting on his tour some of the most distinguished men of the Continent. Visited Galileo when in the prison of the Inquisition. In 1649 was appointed Latin or Foreign Secretary to the Council of the Commonwealth. The Restoration drove Milton into retirement and obscurity. Died November 8th, 1674, and was buried beside his father's dust in St. Giles's, Cripplegate. Milton's chief poetical works are, Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; Ode on the Nativity (written when the poet was only twenty-one years of age); L'Allegro; Il Penseroso; Comus; Lycidas; Samson Agonistes, etc. His principal prose works are, Areopagitica; The Tenure of Kings; Eikonoklastes, etc. ADDRESS TO LIGHT. Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven, first-born, May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, 1 Badges, signs or marks. 2 Perforce, by compulsion or force. 3 For aye, for ever. 4 Co-eternal, equally eternal. Bright effluence1 of bright essence increate :2 4 Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained I sung of chaos7 and eternal night; 6 Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down Those other two, equalled with me in fate 1 Effluence, that which flows out. 2 Essence increate, uncreated existence. 3 Ethereal, heavenly. 4 Stygian pool, the lake into which Satan and his companions were cast. The poet has, in the previous part of Paradise Lost, described this world of darkness, and, in his imagination, he is now about to rise to heaven, or the world of light. 5 Middle darkness, the great gulf between hell and heaven. 6 Orphean, from Orpheus, a musician who is fabled to have played so exquisitely on his lyre that stones and mountains were moved by his music. 7 Chaos, a Greek word, meaning an unformed, confused mass. 8 But thou revisitest not these eyes. Milton was blind when he wrote Paradise Lost, and this and the following lines contain a touching allusion to his own blindness. 9 Sion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built. 10 Flowery brooks, Kedron and Siloah. So were I equalled with them in renown, Of Nature's works, to me expunged and rased, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers JAMES THOMSON. (1700-1748.) BORN at Ednam (Roxburghshire), and educated at the Jedburgh Grammar School and the University of Edinburgh. Studied for the church, but left Scotland in early life for London, to try his fortune as a literary man. Ultimately met with considerable success, and settled at Richmond (Surrey), where he died in 1748. Thomson's principal works are The Seasons, and The Castle of Indolence. 1 Thamyris, an old bard or poet mentioned by Homer. 2 Mæonides, Homer, who is said to have been blind. 3 Tiresias, a Theban soothsayer. 4 Phineus, in mythology a king, who, for his cruelty, was struck blind by the gods. 5 Wakeful bird, the nightingale. 6 Darkling, being in the dark. 7 Nocturnal, nightly. 8 Expunged and rased, blotted out, and uprooted. 9 Irradiate, brighten. |