Purification in the Old Law did save,

And such, as yet once more I trust to have
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,
Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.

Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined

So clear, as in no face with more delight.
But oh! as to embrace me she inclined,

I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.

Various readings of the SONNETS, from Milton's MS.

IX.

7. And at thy blooming vertue fret their spleen. 13. Opens the dore of blisse that hour of night.

XI.

1. I writt a book of late called Tetrachordon,
And weav'd it close, both matter, form, and style;
It went off well about the town awhile,
Numbering good wits, but now is seldom por'd on.
10. Those barbarous (rough-hewn) names.

XII.

10

4. Of owls and buzzards.

10. And hate the truth, whereby they should be free.

XIII.

3. Meekly thou didst resign this earthly clod

Of flesh and sin which man from heaven doth sever. 6. Strait follow'd thee the path that saints have trod, Still as they journey'd from this dark abode

Up to the realm of peace and joy for ever

Faith shew'd the way, and she who saw them best

Thy handmaids, etc.

12. And spoke the truth.

XVI.

3. Words with just notes, which till us'd [when most were wont] to scan

With Midas' ears, misjoining short and long.

6. And gives thee praise above the pipe of Pan,

were washed, or wore white at their purification after childbed: see Lev. xii. Perhaps however Milton does not make the latter assertion.

12. in no face, i.e. in no other face.

To after-age thou shalt be writ a man,

Thou didst reform thy art the chief among.
Thou honourst vers.

12. Fame by the Tuscan's leav shall set thee higher
Than old Casell whom Dante woo'd to sing.

2. the vacant whore Plurality.

5. To force the consciences, etc.

12. By haire-brain'd Edwards.

XVII.

17. Crop ye as close as marginal P—'s ears.

Sonnets xviii., xix., xx., xxiii. were not printed by Milton himself, for obvious reasons. They first appeared in 1694, at the end of Phillips's Life of Milton, whose text was followed till Newton gave the present one from the Cambridge MS. The variations are as follows.*

2. And fills each mouth, etc.

XVIII.

5. Thy firm unshaken valour ever brings

Victory home, while new rebellions raise. 8. Her broken league to imp her serpent-wings. 10. For what can war but acts of war still breed Till injured truth from violence be freed, And publick faith be rescued from the brand.

1. that through a crowd

XIX.

Not of war only but distractions rude.

5, 6. And fought God's battles and his works pursued.

7. While Darwent stream, etc.

9. And twenty battles more (first reading of MS.). 11. No less than those of war.

XX.

1. Vane, young in years, but in sage councils old. 7. Then to advise how war may be best upheld, Mann'd by her two main nerves, etc.

10. This line wanting.

11. What serves each thou hast learn'd, etc.
13. Therefore on thy right hand Religion leans,
And reckons thee in chief her eldest son.

XXIII.

3. Bereft of sight their seeing have forgot

* Warton, who is as usual followed by Todd, in his notes on the first of these four Sonnets, says that "it, the two following, and the two to Cyriac Skinner, were not inserted in the edition of 1673." Now one of those to Skinner is in that edition. In our Life of Milton (p. 313) we were here, as elsewhere, led into misstatement by the authority of these critics.

Nor to their idle orbs doth day appear,

Or sun or moon, etc.

7. bate one jot.

12. Whereof all Europe rings from side to side.

This thought might lead me through this world's vain mask
Content though blind, had I no other guide.

In v. 12 the MS. has talks for rings.

TRANSLATIONS.

1. IN OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND,' ETC. AH, Constantine, of how much ill was cause, Not thy conversion, but those rich domains. That the first wealthy Pope received of thee!

2. IN THE SAME.

Founded in chaste and humble poverty,

'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn,
Impudent whore, where hast thou placed thy hope?
In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?
Another Constantine comes not in haste.

1.

2.

3.

3. IN THE SAME.

Then passed he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously.

"Ahi, Costantin, di quanto mal fu madre

Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote

Che da te prese il primo ricco padre!" Dante, Inf. xix. 115.

"Fondata in casta ed umil povertate,

Contra tuoi fondatori alzi le corna,

Putta sfacciata; e dov' hai posto spene?

Negli adulteri tuoi? nelle mal nate

Ricchezze tante? Or Costantin non torna;

Ma tolga il mondo tristo, che 'l sostene." Petrarca, Son. 107.

"Di varii fiori ad un gran monte passa,

Ch' ebbe già buono odore, or putia forte.

4.

5.

This was the gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.

4. IN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS.'

Laughing to teach the truth

What hinders? As some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.

5. IN THE SAME.

Joking decides great things,
Stronger and better oft than earnest can.

6. IN THE SAME.

'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words.

7. IN TETRACHORDON.'

Whom do we count a good man?-Whom but he
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,
Who judges in great suits and controversies,

Questo era il dono-se però dir lece-
Che Costantino al buon Silvestro fece."

Ariosto, Orl. Fur. xxxiv. 80.

Quamquam ridentem dicere verum

Quid vetat? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi

Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima." Hor. Sat. i. 1, 24.

"Ridiculum acri

Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res."

Hor. Sat. i. 10, 14.

Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.

8. IN AREOPAGITICA.'

This is true liberty, when freeborn men
Having to advise the public may speak free;
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise:
Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace.
What can be juster in a state than this?

9. IN TENURE OF KINGS.'

There can be slain

No sacrifice to God more acceptable,
Than an unjust and wicked king.

10. IN HISTORY OF ENGLAND.'

Brutus thus addresses Diana in the country of Leogecia.

Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will
Walkest on the rolling spheres, and through the deep,

Quo res sponsore, et quo causæ teste, tenentur.
Sed videt hunc omnis domus et vicinia tota

Introrsus turpem, speciosum pelle decora." Hor. Ep. i. 16, 40.
Τοὐλεύθερον δ ̓ ἐκεῖνο· τίς θέλει πόλει

Χρηστόν τι βούλευμ ̓ ἐς μέσον φέρειν ἔχων ;

Καὶ ταῦθ ̓ ὁ χρήζων λαμπρός ἐσθ', ὁ μὴ θέλων

Σιγᾷ. Τί τούτων ἔστ ̓ ἰσαίτερον πόλει; Eur. Sup. v. 438.

"Victima haud ulla amplior

Potest, magisque opima mactari Jovi,

Quam rex iniquus." Sen. Her. Fur. v. 922.

"Diva potens nemorum, terror silvestribus apris,
Cui licet amfractus ire per ætherios,

Infernasque domos, terrestria jura resolve,
Et dic quas terras nos habitare velis.
Dic certam sedem, qua te venerabor in ævum,
Qua sibi virgineis templa dicabo choris."

Geoffrey of Monmouth, lib. i. fol. vi.