By common consent, critics acclaim1 John Milton the greatest Latin scholar, the foremost man of letters and one of the two first literary artists England has produced. Historians have united to give him a place among the ten great names in English history. Take out of our institutions Milton's plea for the liberty of the printing press, his views on education, and all modern society would be changed. Tennyson called Milton "the God-gifted organ-voice of England, the mighty2-mouthed inventor of harmonies; an angel skilled to sing of time and of eternity3; a seer who spent his days and nights listening to the sevenfold Hallelujah Chorus of Almighty4 God." Voltaire was not an Englishman, but Voltaire characterized Milton's poems as "the noblest product of the human imagination." Many American statesmen believe that the principles of the Compact signed in the cabin of the Mayflower and the final[Pg 116] Constitution, are none other than the reproduction in political terms of the dreams of freedom that haunted the soul of John Milton all his life long. But it remained for Wordsworth to pay the supreme5 tribute to this immortal6 singer:
"Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice that sounded like the sea; Pure as the native heavens, majestic7, free. We must be free or die that speak the tongue That Shakespeare spoke8; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held."
Poet, statesman, philosopher, champion and martyr9 of English literature, John Milton was born at one of the critical moments in the history of mankind. His era, says Macaulay, "was one of the memorable10 eras—the very crisis of the great conflict between liberty and despotism, reason and prejudice. The battle was fought for no single generation, for no single land. The destinies of the human race were staked on the same cast with the freedom of the English people. Then were first proclaimed those mighty principles which have since worked their way into the depth of the American forests . . . and from one end of Europe to the other have kindled11 an unquenchable fire in the hearts of the[Pg 117] oppressed. Of those principles, then struggling for their existence, Milton was the most devoted12 and eloquent13 champion."
If it be true, as Macaulay would have us believe, that as civilization advances, poetry necessarily declines, and that in an enlightened and literary society the poet's difficulties are "in proportion to his proficiency14" as a scholar, then it may truly be said that few poets have triumphed over greater difficulties than John Milton. He was born at the end of the heroic age in English literature, and he enjoyed all the benefits and advantages that travel and culture could bestow15 upon him. If, however, as others of us believe, great literature is like a spring of clear water, bubbling out of the soil, and no man can say what mysterious elements give it its crystal purity, then it behooves16 us to examine somewhat into the nature of Milton's parentage, the character of his environment and the significance of the training he received as a young man.
The great poet was born in London, eight years before the death of Shakespeare. The first sixteen years of his life were the last sixteen of the reign17 of James I. In Cheapside, within a block of his father's house, stood the old "Mermaid18" tavern19 of Marlow, Ben Jonson,[Pg 118] Dekker and Philip Massinger. His father was a scrivener, who drew deeds, made wills, invested money for his clients, and, in general, fulfilled for many families the tasks that now devolve upon the modern trust company. The father's skill and probity20 won for him an increasing number of clients, and with money came leisure for study and travel. He was a musician, a man of culture, a composer of considerable note; and he made his home an all-round center for young artists and authors. From the beginning, he recognized the unique genius of his son, and made the development of that genius to be the chief object of his life. He never tired of telling the boy that his first duty was to make the most possible out of himself. He held to those ideals that were outlined in Plato's and Aristotle's books on education. Whatever development could come through music, art, lectures, books, teachers, travel, was given the young poet. Just as misers21 pursue the accumulation of gold, just as ambitious statesmen pursue office and honour, so this father, by day and by night, toiled22 upon the education of his son; first teaching the child in his own library; then calling to his aid wise and experienced tutors; then sending the boy to a great London grammar school and thence to Cambridge University.[Pg 119] The boy showed promise from the first. His exercises, "in English or other tongue, prosing or versing, but chiefly the latter," early attracted attention. He studied hard, at school and at home; often studying till twelve at night. He loved books, "and he loved better to be foremost." He was only fifteen years of age when he wrote:
"Let us blaze his name abroad, For of gods, he is the God, Who by wisdom did create Th' painted heavens so full of state, He the golden tressèd sun Caused all day his course to run, Th' hornèd moon to hang by night 'Mid23 her spangled sisters bright; For his mercies aye endure, Ever faithful, ever sure."
Throughout his youth, Milton's enthusiasm for reading and learning burned like a fire, by day and by night. He was one of the few students outside of Italy who could think in Latin, debate in Latin, and write verse in Latin quite as readily as in English. "He was a profound and elegant classical scholar; he had studied all the mysteries of Rabbinical[Pg 120] literature; he was intimately acquainted with every language of modern Europe from which either pleasure or information was then to be derived24." He fulfilled his own definition of education:—"I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war." And he believed that culture and character should have an aggressive note. "I take it to be my portion in this life, by labour and intense study, to leave something so written to after time, that they should not willingly let it die." Faithfully did he seek to live up to these high ideals. He sowed no wild oats, cut no bloody26 gashes27 in his conscience and memory, dwelt apart from vice28 and sensualism, and, at last, left the university with the approbation29 of the good and with no stain upon his soul.
Upon entering Cambridge it had been his intention to become a clergyman, but that intention he soon abandoned. The reasons he gives us are "the tyranny that had invaded the church," and the fact that, finding he could not honestly subscribe31 to the oaths and obligations required, he "thought it better to preserve a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking, begun with servitude and[Pg 121] forswearing." His father, meantime, had retired32 from business, and taken a country house in a small village near Windsor, about twenty miles from London. Few fathers have ever been as generous in meeting and encouraging a son's desire to devote himself to literature. For the next five years and eight months, in that country quietude, within sight of the towers of Windsor, Milton describes himself as "wholly intent, through a period of absolute leisure, on a steady perusal33 of the Greek and Latin writers." His father, of course, had provided the funds. His biographer Masson says: "Not until Milton was thirty-two years of age, if even then, did he earn a penny for himself." Such a life would have ruined ninety-nine out of every hundred talented young men; but it is the genius of Milton that he put those years to good use. Believing himself to be one dedicated34 to a high purpose, he not only completed his studies in classical literature but produced, at the same time, those early immortal classics known as his "minor35" poems. There he wrote the "Lycidas," one of the world's great elegies36; there the "Comus," which alone of all the masques of that time and preceding time, "has gone in its entirety into the body of living English literature." And there he wrote[Pg 122] those two exquisite37, airy fancies known to every schoolboy under the titles of "L'Allegro," and "Il Penseroso."
It was in 1638, at the age of thirty, that Milton determined38 to broaden his views by study in foreign lands. Once more his father generously made possible the fulfillment of his ambition. The young scholar naturally turned his steps toward Italy, then the home of painting, letters and the newer learning. His biographer pictures him for us—"a slight, patrician39 figure, distinguished40 alike in mind and physique. . . . He carries letters from Sir Henry Wotton; he sees the great Hugo Grotius at Paris; sees the sunny country of olives in Provence; sees the superb front of Genoa piling up from the blue waters of the Mediterranean41; sees Galileo at Florence—the old philosopher too blind to study the face of the studious young Englishman that has come so far to greet him. He sees, too, what is best and bravest at Rome; among the rest St. Peter's, just then brought to completion, and in the first freshness of its great tufa masonry42. He is fêted by studious young Italians; has the freedom of the Accademia della Crusca; blazes out in love-sonnets to some dark-eyed signorina of Bologna; returns by Venice and by Geneva where he hobnobs with the Diodati,[Pg 123] friends of his old school-fellow, Charles Diodati." In Rome again, we find him writing Latin poems, some of which, seen by learned Italians, stir these writers to amazement44 at the thought that a Briton could be so excellent a Latin poet. It was their praise, Milton says in one of his letters, that led to his renewed resolve to devote his life to literature. Then and there he determined to do for England what Homer had done for Greece, what Virgil had done for Rome, what Dante had done for Italy. Lingering in the Sistine Chapel45 and in the various galleries of the Vatican, he saw the religious dramas of Michael Angelo, and the paintings of Raphael, with the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve, culminating in the Last Judgment46. And in those hours of leisure and contemplation he stored his memory with the glorious images that he was to use in later years for unfolding and unveiling the fall of man's soul in his Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained47.
It was while he was in the midst of his studies in the libraries of Rome and Florence, that the news reached him of the civil war threatening at home. Charles the First had reaffirmed the doctrine48 of the divine right of kings—that iniquitous49 theory which long afterward50 was to be revived by Kaiser Wilhelm[Pg 124] as an excuse for the Great War. Over against Charles stood the Parliament, representing the people, and led by John Eliot and John Pym, John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell. Milton, with instant decision, turned his steps toward England. "I thought it dishonourable," he tells us, "that I should be travelling at ease for amusement when my fellow-countrymen at home were fighting for liberty." Back in London, he found the country rocking on a red wave—the Scotch52 marching over the border—the Long Parliament portending—Strafford and Laud53 on the verge54 of impeachment—city pitted against city; brother against brother. His own father, drawing near to the end of his life, was a strong Royalist. The storm had broken, and in that sea of trouble the King and the old leaders were to go down. It is the glory of Milton that in that hour he chose to ally himself with a great cause and abandoning, for the time, his dream of an immortal epic55, threw himself into the struggle for intellectual and moral liberty.
For the next twenty years, he was engulfed56 in a maelstrom57 of politics, tossed on a feverish58 tide of political hatred59. With his own father and brother on the side of the King, he could no longer live under their roof; and unwilling[Pg 125] to surrender his convictions of freedom and self-government, he struck out for himself in London. He took lodgings60, and for years earned a slender livelihood61 by preparing pupils for the university. He gave his mornings to his students, and spent his evenings in writing pleas, attacking the autocracy62 of the King, and supporting the Puritan Leaders who wished to found the new commonwealth63. It was not only Milton's life that was so affected64. The lives of almost all his English contemporaries suffered similarly. Through the twenty years, from 1640 to 1660, there was an eclipse of pure literature in England. When he wrote he wrote necessarily, in prose. "I have the use," he explains, "as I may account it, of my left hand." But never once did he lose sight of his ideal—poetry. "Neither do I think it shame," he explains in one of his pamphlets, "to covenant65 with any knowing reader, that for some few years yet I may go on trust with him toward the payment of what I am now indebted,"—meaning the composition of some poem which "the world would not willingly let die." He kept his promise—in the fullness of time. But in the interval66, he played his part in the great drama of the Civil War.
At the very outset he was forced to endure[Pg 126] and triumph over a personal misfortune. Like Shakespeare and Goethe, and many other poets, John Milton was most unfortunate in his marital67 life. At thirty-five, after a month's rest in the country, he returned to London, bringing with him a wife. She was young and of a family virtually committed to the Royalist cause; she had a shallow mind, and no sympathy either for Milton's artistic68 aims or his political convictions. The Civil War was on, Milton was giving himself with intense application to important public topics, was away from home in consultation69 with public men the long day through, and often returned late at night. The poor girl was in despair. A stranger in a great city, with no gift for friendship, she slowly became conscious of the fact that she never could be interested in John Milton's life. Urging the necessity of a brief visit to her country home, she went away and later positively70 refused to return. Milton was first hurt, then angered and finally disillusioned71; and after great mental distress72 and careful study of the whole question of marriage and divorce, he published his views, which have exerted a profound and lasting73 influence upon society.
John Milton held that divorce should be as easy as marriage, and that when two people,[Pg 127] beginning their contract in good faith, discover after honest endeavour, that there can be no happiness in the home, and both decide that it is best and honourable51 to separate, then there should be no legal obstacle to prevent this, providing always that proper provision be made for the support and education of children, whose character and disposition74 could not fail to be injured by the daily spectacle of unhappiness. Years afterward, when his wife's family had been rendered homeless, he took them all back into his own house. When his wife died, he married again, and within a year he was left a widower75. Six years later he married his third wife, but his home was embittered76 by endless warfare77 between his daughters and his third wife. One of his letters says plainly that his wife was kind to him in his blind, old age when his daughters were undutiful and inhuman78.
The Civil War was scarcely begun before he issued the first of those thunderbolts of indignation and exhortation79 known as his pamphlets on church discipline, education, and the liberty of unlicensed printing. The years that followed were years of incessant80 labour. He began and completed during this period his History of England, written from the viewpoint of the common people and tracing the[Pg 128] ills, the poverty, and rebellion of Britain to misgovernment and tyranny. When Parliament tried the King upon charges of treason, and executed Charles, it was John Milton who came forward to defend Parliament, in a treatise81 which bore this title upon the title page:
The Tenure82 of Kings and Magistrate83 Proving that it is Lawful84 To call to account a tyrant85 or wicked King And, after due conviction, to depose86 and put him to death.
By
JOHN MILTON.
Milton was not only the greatest pamphleteer of his generation—"head and shoulders above the rest"—but there is no life of that time, not even Cromwell's, in which the history of the revolution, so far as the deep underlying87 ideas were concerned, may be better studied. He was the first Englishman of note outside of Parliament to attach himself thus openly to the new Commonwealth. And every one of his prose works had this great quality, that it struck a blow for liberty.
In beginning any study of Milton it must be remembered that his intellect was essentially88 athletic89. If he was the great poet of his era, he was not a dreamer of the closet, but a[Pg 129] man who plunged90 into the thick of the fight, and made his writing and his doing a vital and indestructible part of his time. In analyzing91 the scholar's influence, De Quincey speaks of "the literature of knowledge" and "the literature of power." The function of the first is to teach men, the function of the second is to move and persuade men to action. De Quincey wishes us to understand that Milton's writings entered almost immediately into the thinking and the doing of the British people, just as bread enters into the blood of the physical system. Milton cared nothing for learning for its own sake. Knowledge was important only to the degree in which it was vitally creative, inspiring men, correcting their blunders, rebuking92 their selfishness, enlightening their darkness, and lifting them into the realm of silence, peace, and mystery. After defining the true scholar and Christian93, as a knight94 going forth95 to war against every form of ignorance and tyranny, he exclaims, "I cannot praise a fugitive96 and cloistered98 virtue99 unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary100, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat." Learning, with Milton, was a means of enlarging his being and doing. Mark Pattison[Pg 130] has well said, "He cultivated not letters, but himself, and sought to enter into possession of his own mental kingdom. Not that he might reign there, but that he might royally use its resources in building up a work which should bring honour to his country and his native tongue."
The glory of the battle which he fought for freedom—the freedom of the human mind—is all his own. "Thousands and tens of thousands among his contemporaries raised their voices against ship-money and the Star Chamber101; but there were few indeed who discerned the more fearful evils of moral and intellectual slavery, and the benefits which would result from the liberty of the press and the unfettered exercise of private judgment." Milton was determined that the people should think for themselves, as well as tax themselves. And that he might shake the very foundations of the corruptions102 which he saw debasing the state, he selected for himself the most arduous103 and dangerous literary service. "At the beginning he wrote with incomparable energy and eloquence104 against the bishops105. But, when his opinion seemed likely to prevail, he passed on to other subjects, and abandoned prelacy to the crowd of writers who now hastened to insult a falling party." He pressed always[Pg 131] into the forlorn hope. The very men who most disapproved106 of his opinions were forced to respect the hardihood with which he maintained them.
Milton's prose pamphlets deserve the close study of every writer who wishes to know the full power of the English language. They sparkle with fine passages; they ring with eloquence; they have the fire and the fervour of a great mind at white heat. For quotable sentences, they are "a perfect field of cloth of gold." And the fineness and stiffness of their texture107 is by no means their greatest splendour. Every one of these controversial pamphlets answers to its author's definition of a good book in that it contains "the precious life-blood of a master spirit."
By far the most popular, and probably the most eloquent of all his prose writings is the famous Areopagitica, his argument for the liberty of unlicensed printing. It appeared on the 25th of November 1664, deliberately108 unlicensed and unregistered, and was a remonstrance109 addressed to Parliament in the form and style of an oration110 to be delivered in the assembly. Nobly eulogistic111 of Parliament in other respects, it denounced their printing ordinance112 as utterly113 unworthy of them, and of the new era of English liberties.[Pg 132] Admired to-day because its main doctrine has become axiomatic—at one blow it accomplished114 the repeal115 of the licensing116 system and established forever the freedom of the English press—it contains passages which for power and beauty of prose make the finest declamations of Edmund Burke sink into insignificance117.
It was not, however, the Areopagitica, but his vindication118 of the execution of Charles the First that procured119 for Milton the office of Latin Secretary under Cromwell's government. His boundless120 admiration121 for Cromwell had shown itself already in his immortal sonnet43 on the great soldier. He considered Cromwell the greatest and the best man of his generation, or of many generations; and he regarded Cromwell's assumption of the supreme power, as well as his retention122 of that power with a sovereign title, "as no real suppression of the republic, but as necessary for the preservation123 of the republic." Cromwell, in turn, saw in Milton a most powerful defender124 of the new commonwealth. By 1651 it was generally conceded that "the reputation of the Commonwealth abroad had been established by two agencies, and only two:—the victories of Cromwell, and the prose pamphlets of John Milton." In the nature of[Pg 133] the case, their friendship and mutual125 respect of the two men was inevitable126.
After the death of Charles, new treaties had to be drawn127 between England and Spain, England and France and Italy and Holland. These state papers were all written in Latin, and the Secretary of Latin and of Foreign Relations was a great person in the cabinet of every country. Milton's knowledge of Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, as well as Latin and Greek, made him an important figure in the deliberations of Cromwell's Council of State. His special duty was the drafting in Latin of letters of state, but from the first, he was employed in every conceivable kind of work. The council looked to him for everything in the nature of literary vigilance in the interests of the struggling Commonwealth. He was employed in personal conferences, in the examination of suspected papers, in interviews with their authors and printers, agents of foreign towns, envoys128, ambassadors. It was a period of intense and feverish activity, with cabinet meetings, conferences between the leaders of the government, necessarily held at night. In that era of candle-light and flickering129 torches, with oil and electricity both still unknown, Milton, with despatches to be translated, notes to be[Pg 134] made at all hours, was soon imperilling his eyesight. He was forty years of age when he took the post; at forty-six, as a result of his continuous and indomitable activities, he had ruined his eyes and was totally blind.
Wonderful the fortitude130 with which he faced this affliction! Hear the lines he composed in the first of those dark days:
"When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one talent, which is death to hide, Lodged131 with me useless, though my soul more bent132 To serve therewith my Maker133, and present My true account, lest he, returning, chide134; 'Dost God exact day-labour, light denied?' I fondly ask: But Patience, to prevent That murmur135, soon replies—'God doth not heed136 Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke137, they serve him best; his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve, who only stand and wait.'"
And hard upon this catastrophe138 came a new turn in the wheel of fortune. Cromwell died; the Commonwealth came to an end; all[Pg 135] London threw its cap in the air at the Restoration. The leaders of the Commonwealth had to flee for their lives. Some fled to America for safety and some were caught and executed. Cromwell's body was taken from its grave in Westminster Abbey, suspended from the gallows139, and left to dangle140 there. Past Milton's house, near Red Lion Square, the howling mob went by, dragging the body of his old leader. Milton himself, blind and in hiding, narrowly escaped execution. His head was forfeit141, his pamphlets burned by public order. Only chance, and the exertion142 of influential143 friends, saved him from discovery and death. His escape from the scaffold is a mystery now, as it was a mystery at the time.
In the evil days that followed—the days of the Restoration, with its revenges and reactions, its return to high Episcopacy and suppression of every form of dissent144 and sectarianism, its new and shameless royal court—Milton, blind and forgotten by the public, turned to his long-cherished dream of a great poem. For twenty years, through all the storm and stress of political agitation145, it had never been banished146 wholly from his thoughts. In the library of Cambridge University there may be seen to-day a list of over one hundred[Pg 136] possible subjects, written in his own hand during some leisure-hour when he was pondering the great project of his heart. Living in retirement147, visited only by a few close friends, he now proceeded to compose the masterpiece planned as a young man. Unable to see a book, forced to beg every friend who visited him to read aloud to him, dependent upon the assistance of three rebellious148 daughters, none of whom understood the many languages he knew so well, he nevertheless drove forward, determined to finish his task. Paradise Lost, begun and brought to completion in the face of every sort of discouragement, was finished in 1665 and published in 1667.
This amazing poem—the glory of English literature—is one of the few monumental works of the world. The English language possesses no other epic poem, nor a poem of any other kind, which approaches it in sustained sublimity149. Nothing in modern epic literature is comparable to it save only the Divine Comedy of Dante. It is impossible, in a single page or chapter, to call the roll of the beauties of Milton's poetic150 style. Much has been written of the organ-music of his verse, its magical, mysterious influence. Speaking generally, the terms mean little; but applied151 to Milton, both have significance. For his[Pg 137] melody, his verse-structure, the very names he employs act like an incantation, with an almost occult power.
James Russell Lowell emphasizes this quality: "It is wonderful how, from the most withered152 and juiceless hint gathered in his reading, his grand images rise like an exhalation; how from the most battered153 old lamp, caught in that huge drag-net with which he swept the waters of learning, he could conjure154 up a tall genii to build his palaces." His words, says Macaulay, in another brilliant summary, "are words of enchantment155. No sooner are they pronounced, than the past is present and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all the burial places of the memory give up their dead. Change the structure of the sentence; substitute one synonym156 for another, and the whole effect is destroyed. There is large learning in the poem—weighty and recondite157; but this spoils no music; great cumbrous names catch sonorous158 vibrations159 under his modulating160 touch, and colossal161 shields and spheres clash together like symbols. The whole burden of his knowledges—Pagan, Christian, or Hebraic, lift up and sink away upon the undulations of his sublime162 verse, as heavy-laden ships rise and fall upon some[Pg 138] great ground swell163 making in from outer seas."
Fully25 to comprehend the peculiar164 sublimity of Paradise Lost, one must understand the peculiar character of the age in which Milton was living. It was a theological era, as the next century was a political era. In their reaction from the absolutism of Rome, the Puritans hated everything that reminded them of the Roman excesses, and that revulsion extended not only to the ecclesiastical autocracy of Rome, but to the lesser165 things, the clouds of incense166, stained glass and the rich dresses of the clergy30, the ecclesiastical holidays. These Puritans are called by Macaulay the most remarkable167 body of men that the world has ever produced. They had a contempt for all terrestrial distinctions. Confident of the favour of God, they despised the dignities of this world. "Unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets they were deeply read in the oracles168 of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds169, they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems170 crowns of glory which shall[Pg 139] never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed171 themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by right of an earlier creation and priests by the imposition of a mightier172 hand. Thus the Puritan was made up of two different men—the one all self-abasement, penitence173, gratitude174, passion; the other proud, calm, inflexible175, sagacious. He prostrated176 himself in the dust before his Maker; but he set his foot on the neck of his King."
It is only to be expected that the literature of such an age—both prose and poetry—should be to a large degree theological. Milton's Paradise Lost is an epic of war between good and evil. Not that, strictly177 speaking, Milton belonged to the class just described. He was not a Puritan, any more than he was a Freethinker, or a Royalist. In his character the noblest qualities of all three groups were combined. "From the Parliament and from the Court, from the conventicle and from the Gothic cloister97, from the gloomy circles of the Roundheads and the Christmas revels178 of the Cavalier, his nature selected and drew to itself whatever was great and good." But the peculiar religious note that is in his great epic,[Pg 140] the serious note, the note of dignity, is the distillation179 of an atmosphere charged and aquiver with the most intense theological convictions.
Numerous accounts have come down to us of Milton's personal appearance and habits toward the end of his life. By nature a patrician, reserved, clothed with a gentle dignity, he was not without a certain haughty180, defiant181 self-assertion such as Lowell ascribes to Dante and Michael Angelo. He came to be a familiar figure in the neighbourhood of his residence, "a slender figure, of middle stature182 or a little less, generally dressed in a grey cloak or overcoat, and wearing sometimes a small silver-hilted sword, evidently in feeble health, but still looking younger than he was, with his lightish hair, and his fair, rather than aged183 or pale, complexion184."
He was a very early riser, and regular in the distribution of his day, "spending the first part, to his midday dinner, always in his own room, amid his books, with an amanuensis to read for him and write to his dictation. Usually there was singing in the late afternoon, when there was a voice to sing for him; and instrumental music, when his, or a friendly hand touched the old organ." He loved the out-of-door life, walked much in the[Pg 141] fields, loved his garden and his flowers, made his library to be the world of the open air.
From time to time learned and noble visitors, native and foreign, made their way to his modest home. They read in the lines of his noble countenance185 the proud and mournful history of his glory and his affliction. They listened to his slightest words, they kneeled to kiss his hand and weep upon it, for the neglect of an age that was unworthy of his talents and his virtues186. They contested with his daughters the privilege of reading Homer to him, or of taking down the immortal accents which flowed from his lips. But, for the most part, his last days were days of retirement. The grand loneliness of his latter years makes him the most impressive figure in our literary history. Yet it is idle to talk of the loneliness of one, the habitual187 companions of whose mind were the Past and Future. "I always seem to see him, leaning in his blindness, one hand on the shoulder of each, sure that the Future will guard the song which the Past had inspired."
Few characters have stood the test of time and history so well. And no other man has so fully incarnated188 himself in literature. Therefore the tribute of James Russell Lowell: "We say of Shakespeare that he had the[Pg 142] power of transforming himself into everything, but of Milton that he had the power of transforming everything into himself." Dante is individual, rather than self-conscious, and he, the cast-iron man, grows pliable189 as a field of grain at the breath of Beatrice, and flows away in waves of sunshine. But Milton never let himself go for a moment. As other poets are possessed190 by their theme, so is he self-possessed, his great theme being John Milton, and his great duty that of interpreter between him and the world. Puritanism has left an abiding191 mark in politics and religion, but its true monuments are the prose of Bunyan and the verse of Milton. For the epitaph written by his friend was scrupulously192 accurate: "Whatsoever193 things are true, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report, Milton thought upon these things."
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1 acclaim | |
v.向…欢呼,公认;n.欢呼,喝彩,称赞 | |
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n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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adj.全能的,万能的;很大的,很强的 | |
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adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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10 memorable | |
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的 | |
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11 kindled | |
(使某物)燃烧,着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 ); 激起(感情等); 发亮,放光 | |
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12 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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13 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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14 proficiency | |
n.精通,熟练,精练 | |
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15 bestow | |
v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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16 behooves | |
n.利益,好处( behoof的名词复数 )v.适宜( behoove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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17 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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18 mermaid | |
n.美人鱼 | |
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19 tavern | |
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店 | |
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20 probity | |
n.刚直;廉洁,正直 | |
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21 misers | |
守财奴,吝啬鬼( miser的名词复数 ) | |
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22 toiled | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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23 mid | |
adj.中央的,中间的 | |
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24 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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25 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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26 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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27 gashes | |
n.深长的切口(或伤口)( gash的名词复数 )v.划伤,割破( gash的第三人称单数 ) | |
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28 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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29 approbation | |
n.称赞;认可 | |
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30 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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31 subscribe | |
vi.(to)订阅,订购;同意;vt.捐助,赞助 | |
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32 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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33 perusal | |
n.细读,熟读;目测 | |
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34 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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35 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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36 elegies | |
n.哀歌,挽歌( elegy的名词复数 ) | |
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37 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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38 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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39 patrician | |
adj.贵族的,显贵的;n.贵族;有教养的人;罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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40 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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41 Mediterranean | |
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
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42 masonry | |
n.砖土建筑;砖石 | |
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43 sonnet | |
n.十四行诗 | |
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44 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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45 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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46 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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47 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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48 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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49 iniquitous | |
adj.不公正的;邪恶的;高得出奇的 | |
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50 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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51 honourable | |
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
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52 scotch | |
n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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53 laud | |
n.颂歌;v.赞美 | |
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54 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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55 epic | |
n.史诗,叙事诗;adj.史诗般的,壮丽的 | |
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56 engulfed | |
v.吞没,包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57 maelstrom | |
n.大乱动;大漩涡 | |
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58 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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59 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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60 lodgings | |
n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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61 livelihood | |
n.生计,谋生之道 | |
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62 autocracy | |
n.独裁政治,独裁政府 | |
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63 commonwealth | |
n.共和国,联邦,共同体 | |
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64 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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65 covenant | |
n.盟约,契约;v.订盟约 | |
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66 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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67 marital | |
adj.婚姻的,夫妻的 | |
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68 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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69 consultation | |
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议 | |
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70 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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71 disillusioned | |
a.不再抱幻想的,大失所望的,幻想破灭的 | |
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72 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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73 lasting | |
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持 | |
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74 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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75 widower | |
n.鳏夫 | |
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76 embittered | |
v.使怨恨,激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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78 inhuman | |
adj.残忍的,不人道的,无人性的 | |
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79 exhortation | |
n.劝告,规劝 | |
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80 incessant | |
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
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81 treatise | |
n.专著;(专题)论文 | |
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82 tenure | |
n.终身职位;任期;(土地)保有权,保有期 | |
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83 magistrate | |
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官 | |
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84 lawful | |
adj.法律许可的,守法的,合法的 | |
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85 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
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86 depose | |
vt.免职;宣誓作证 | |
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87 underlying | |
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的 | |
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88 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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89 athletic | |
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的 | |
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90 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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91 analyzing | |
v.分析;分析( analyze的现在分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析n.分析 | |
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92 rebuking | |
责难或指责( rebuke的现在分词 ) | |
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93 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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94 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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95 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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96 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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97 cloister | |
n.修道院;v.隐退,使与世隔绝 | |
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98 cloistered | |
adj.隐居的,躲开尘世纷争的v.隐退,使与世隔绝( cloister的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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100 adversary | |
adj.敌手,对手 | |
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101 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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102 corruptions | |
n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 );腐化;腐败;贿赂 | |
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103 arduous | |
adj.艰苦的,费力的,陡峭的 | |
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104 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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105 bishops | |
(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
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106 disapproved | |
v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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107 texture | |
n.(织物)质地;(材料)构造;结构;肌理 | |
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108 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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109 remonstrance | |
n抗议,抱怨 | |
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110 oration | |
n.演说,致辞,叙述法 | |
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111 eulogistic | |
adj.颂扬的,颂词的 | |
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112 ordinance | |
n.法令;条令;条例 | |
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113 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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114 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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115 repeal | |
n.废止,撤消;v.废止,撤消 | |
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116 licensing | |
v.批准,许可,颁发执照( license的现在分词 ) | |
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117 insignificance | |
n.不重要;无价值;无意义 | |
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118 vindication | |
n.洗冤,证实 | |
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119 procured | |
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 );拉皮条 | |
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120 boundless | |
adj.无限的;无边无际的;巨大的 | |
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121 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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122 retention | |
n.保留,保持,保持力,记忆力 | |
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123 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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124 defender | |
n.保卫者,拥护者,辩护人 | |
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125 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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126 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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127 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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128 envoys | |
使节( envoy的名词复数 ); 公使; 谈判代表; 使节身份 | |
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129 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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130 fortitude | |
n.坚忍不拔;刚毅 | |
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131 lodged | |
v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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132 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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133 maker | |
n.制造者,制造商 | |
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134 chide | |
v.叱责;谴责 | |
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135 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
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136 heed | |
v.注意,留意;n.注意,留心 | |
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137 yoke | |
n.轭;支配;v.给...上轭,连接,使成配偶 | |
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138 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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139 gallows | |
n.绞刑架,绞台 | |
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140 dangle | |
v.(使)悬荡,(使)悬垂 | |
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141 forfeit | |
vt.丧失;n.罚金,罚款,没收物 | |
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142 exertion | |
n.尽力,努力 | |
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143 influential | |
adj.有影响的,有权势的 | |
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144 dissent | |
n./v.不同意,持异议 | |
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145 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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146 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147 retirement | |
n.退休,退职 | |
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148 rebellious | |
adj.造反的,反抗的,难控制的 | |
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149 sublimity | |
崇高,庄严,气质高尚 | |
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150 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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151 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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152 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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153 battered | |
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损 | |
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154 conjure | |
v.恳求,祈求;变魔术,变戏法 | |
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155 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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156 synonym | |
n.同义词,换喻词 | |
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157 recondite | |
adj.深奥的,难解的 | |
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158 sonorous | |
adj.响亮的,回响的;adv.圆润低沉地;感人地;n.感人,堂皇 | |
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159 vibrations | |
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动 | |
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160 modulating | |
调整( modulate的现在分词 ); (对波幅、频率的)调制; 转调; 调整或改变(嗓音)的音调 | |
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161 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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162 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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163 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
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164 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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165 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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166 incense | |
v.激怒;n.香,焚香时的烟,香气 | |
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167 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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168 oracles | |
神示所( oracle的名词复数 ); 神谕; 圣贤; 哲人 | |
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169 heralds | |
n.使者( herald的名词复数 );预报者;预兆;传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 );宣布(好或重要) | |
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170 diadems | |
n.王冠,王权,带状头饰( diadem的名词复数 ) | |
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171 esteemed | |
adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 );敬重;认为;以为 | |
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172 mightier | |
adj. 强有力的,强大的,巨大的 adv. 很,极其 | |
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173 penitence | |
n.忏悔,赎罪;悔过 | |
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174 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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175 inflexible | |
adj.不可改变的,不受影响的,不屈服的 | |
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176 prostrated | |
v.使俯伏,使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 );(指疾病、天气等)使某人无能为力 | |
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177 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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178 revels | |
n.作乐( revel的名词复数 );狂欢;着迷;陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 );狂欢;着迷;陶醉 | |
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179 distillation | |
n.蒸馏,蒸馏法 | |
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180 haughty | |
adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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181 defiant | |
adj.无礼的,挑战的 | |
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182 stature | |
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
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183 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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184 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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185 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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186 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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187 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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188 incarnated | |
v.赋予(思想、精神等)以人的形体( incarnate的过去式和过去分词 );使人格化;体现;使具体化 | |
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189 pliable | |
adj.易受影响的;易弯的;柔顺的,易驾驭的 | |
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190 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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191 abiding | |
adj.永久的,持久的,不变的 | |
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192 scrupulously | |
adv.一丝不苟地;小心翼翼地,多顾虑地 | |
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193 whatsoever | |
adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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