' which I have a particular reason,' says he, 'to remember; for whereas I had the perusal of it from the very beginning for some years, as I went from time to time to visit him, in parcels of ten, twenty, or thirty verses at a time (which, being written by whatever hand came next, might possibly want correction as to the orthography and pointing), having, as the summer came on, not been shewed any for a considerable while, and desiring the reason thereof, was answered that his vein never happily flowed but from the Autumnal Equinox to the Vernal; and that whatever he attempted at other times was never to his satisfaction, though he courted his fancy never so much so that, in all the years he was about this poem, he may be said to have spent half his time therein '.' 117 Upon this relation Toland2 remarks, that in his opinion Philips has mistaken the time of the year; for Milton, in his Elegies, declares that with the advance of the Spring he feels the increase of his poetical force, 'redeunt in carmina vires 3.' To this it is answered, that Philips could hardly mistake time so well marked; and it may be added that Milton might find different times of the year favourable to different parts of life. Mr. Richardson conceives it impossible that 'such a work should be suspended for six months, or for one. It may go on faster or slower, but it must go on *.' By what necessity it must continually go on, or why it might not be laid aside and resumed, it is not easy to discover. 118 This dependance of the soul upon the seasons, those temporary Phillips' Milton, p. 36. 'From Mr. E. Phillips :-All the time of writing his Paradise Lost his veine began at the autumnall aequinoctiall and ceased at the vernall (or thereabouts; I believe about May).' AuBREY, Brief Lives, ii. 68. His widow said that 'he used to compose his poetry chiefly in winter.' Newton's Milton, Pref. p. 80. Crabbe fancied that he composed best in autumn; but there was something in a sudden fall of snow that appeared to stimulate him in a very extraordinary manner.' Crabbe's Works, 1834, i. 262. 'My father observed that his best working days were "in the early spring, when Nature begins to waken from her winter sleep." Life of Tennyson, i. 374. and periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I suppose, justly be derided as the fumes of vain imagination. Sapiens dominabitur astris '.' The author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a little help from hellebore 2, that he is only idle or exhausted3; but while this notion has possession of the head, it produces the inability which it supposes. Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes; 'possunt quia posse videntur.' When success seems attainable, diligence is enforced; but when it is admitted that the faculties are suppressed by a cross wind or a cloudy sky the day is given up without resistance; for who can contend with the course of Nature? From such prepossessions Milton seems not to have been free. 119 There prevailed in his time an opinion that the world was in its decay, and that we have had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of Nature. It was suspected that the whole creation languished, that neither trees nor animals had the height or bulk of their predecessors, and that every thing was daily sinking by gradual diminution 5. Milton appears to suspect that souls partake of the general degeneracy, and is not without some fear that his book is to be written in 'an age too late' for heroick poesy". Another opinion wanders about the world, and sometimes finds 120 reception among wise men-an opinion that restrains the operations of the mind to particular regions, and supposes that a They [the stars] so gently incline that a wise man may resist them; sapiens dominabitur astris: they rule us, but God rules them.' BURTON, Anatomy of Melancholy, 1660, p. 57. 2 'Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque meraco.' HORACE, Epis. ii. 2. 137. 3 For Gray's 'fantastick foppery as regards 'happy moments' for writing see post, GRAY, 26. Johnson in 1758 wrote in The Idler, No. xi:-This distinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury.... He that shall resolutely excite his faculties, or exert his virtues, will soon make himself superior to the seasons.' Reynolds agreed with him in this. Boswell's Johnson, i. 332 n. 'A man,' said Dr. Johnson, ' may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.' Ib. v. 40. Nevertheless in 1773 he recorded that he 'had always considered the time 5 This view was put forth by Bishop Godfrey Goodman in The Fall of Man, or the Corruption of Nature proved by the Light of Natural Reason, 1616, and refuted in An Apology or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World, by Dr. George Hakewill, 1635 [1627]. Johnson's Works, vii. 103 n. 'unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing Depress'd. Paradise Lost, ix. 44. 121 122 123 luckless mortal may be born in a degree of latitude too high or too low for wisdom or for wit. From this fancy, wild as it is, he had not wholly cleared his head, when he feared lest the 'climate' of his country might be 'too cold' for flights of imagination. Into a mind already occupied by such fancies, another not more reasonable might easily find its way. He that could fear lest his genius had fallen upon too old a world or too chill a climate, might consistently magnify to himself the influence of the seasons, and believe his faculties to be vigorous only half the year. His submission to the seasons was at least more reasonable than his dread of decaying Nature or a frigid zone, for general causes must operate uniformly in a general abatement of mental power; if less could be performed by the writer, less likewise would content the judges of his work. Among this lagging race of frosty grovellers he might still have risen into eminence by producing something which 'they should not willingly let die' However inferior to the heroes who were born in better ages, he might still be great among his contemporaries, with the hope of growing every day greater in the dwindle of posterity: he might still be the giant of the pygmies, the one-eyed monarch of the blind 2. Of his artifices of study or particular hours of composition we have little account, and there was perhaps little to be told. Richardson, who seems to have been very diligent in his enquiries, but discovers always a wish to find Milton discriminated from other men, relates, that 'he would sometimes lie awake whole nights, but not a verse could he make; and on a sudden his poetical faculty would rush upon him with an impetus or astrum, and his daughter was immediately called to secure what came. At other times he would dictate perhaps forty lines in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number 3' These bursts of lights and involutions of darkness, these 124 transient and involuntary excursions and retrocessions of invention, having some appearance of deviation from the common train of Nature, are eagerly caught by the lovers of a wonder. Yet something of this inequality happens to every man in every mode of exertion, manual or mental. The mechanick cannot handle his hammer and his file at all times with equal dexterity; there are hours, he knows not why, when 'his hand is out.' By Mr. Richardson's relation casually conveyed much regard cannot be claimed. That in his intellectual hour Milton called for his daughter to secure what came,' may be questioned, for unluckily it happens to be known that his daughters were never taught to write'; nor would he have been obliged, as is universally confessed, to have employed any casual visiter in disburthening his memory, if his daughter could have performed the office. The story of reducing his exuberance has been told of other 125 authors, and, though doubtless true of every fertile and copious mind, seems to have been gratuitously transferred to Milton 2. What he has told us, and we cannot now know more, is that 126 he composed much of his poem in the night and morning, I suppose before his mind was disturbed with common business; and that he poured out with great fluency his 'unpremeditated verse3.' Versification, free, like his, from the distresses of rhyme, must by a work so long be made prompt and habitual; and, when his thoughts were once adjusted, the words would come at his command. At what particular times of his life the parts of his work were 127 written cannot often be known. The beginning of the third book shews that he had lost his sight; and the Introduction to perhaps 40 lines, as it were in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number.' Richardson's Explanatory Notes, &c., Pref. p. 114. See post, MILTON, 161. 1 Post, MILTON, 140, 174. Elizabeth Foster, his granddaughter, told Newton that he kept his daughters at a great distance, and would not allow them to learn to write, which he thought unnecessary for a woman.' Newton's Milton, Pref. p. 83. 'He hath two daughters living [Mary and Deborah]; Deborah was his amanuensis.' AUBREY, Brief Lives, ii. 64. For their signatures to 36 a document see post, MILTON, 174 n. Her nightly visitation unimplor'd, Easy my unpremeditated verse.' See also ib. iii. 32; vii. 28. 6 His widow reported that on his waking in a morning he would make her write down sometimes twenty or thirty verses.' Newton's Milton, Pref. p. 80. 128 the seventh that the return of the King had clouded him with discountenance, and that he was offended by the licentious festivity of the Restoration. There are no other internal notes of time. Milton, being now cleared from all effects of his disloyalty, had nothing required from him but the common duty of living in quiet, to be rewarded with the common right of protection; but this, which, when he sculked from the approach of his King, was perhaps more than he hoped, seems not to have satisfied him, for no sooner is he safe than he finds himself in danger, 'fallen on evil days and evil tongues, and with darkness and with danger compass'd round. This darkness, had his eyes been better employed, had undoubtedly deserved compassion; but to add the mention of danger was ungrateful and unjust 2. He was fallen indeed on 'evil days'; the time was come in which regicides could no longer boast their wickedness. But of 'evil tongues' for Milton to complain required impudence at least equal to his other powers-Milton, whose warmest advocates must allow that he never spared any asperity of reproach or brutality of insolence. But the charge itself seems to be false, for it would be hard to recollect any reproach cast upon him, either serious or ludicrous, through the whole remaining part of his life. He pursued his studies or his amusements without persecution, molestation, or insult. Such is the reverence paid to great abilities, however misused: they who contemplated in Milton the scholar and the wit were contented to forget the reviler of his King. 129 When the plague (1665) raged in London, Milton took refuge at Chalfont in Bucks 3, where Elwood, who had taken the house for him, first saw a complete copy of Paradise Lost, and, having perused it, said to him, 'Thou hast said a great deal upon Paradise Lost, what hast thou to say upon Paradise Found*?' ' though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; [compass'd round, In darkness, and with dangers And solitude.' Par. Lost, vii. 25. 2 'He was in perpetual terror of being assassinated; though he had escaped the talons of the law, he knew he had made himself enemies in abundance. He was so dejected he would lie awake whole nights. He then kept himself as private as he could. This Dr. Tancred Robin son had from a relation of Milton's, Mr. Walker of the Temple.' Richardson's Explanatory Notes, &c., Pref. P. 94. In the first edition, 'in Essex.' 'The great pit in Finsbury,' into which the dead were thrown, described by Defoe (Works, ed. 1877, v. 45), was close to Bunhill Row. I took a pretty box for him in Giles Chalfont.... After some common discourses had passed between us, he called for a manuscript of his ; |