XIV. ON THE RELIGIOUS MEMORY OF MRS. CATHERINE THOMSON,' MY CHRISTIAN FRIEND, DECEASED 16TH DEC. 1646. WHEN faith and love, which parted from thee never, Of death, call'd life; which us from life doth sever. XV. TO THE LORD GENERAL FAIRFAX.2 1648. FAIRFAX, whose name in arms through Europe rings, Victory home, though new rebellions raise When Milton was first made Latin retary to Cromwell, he lodged at a Mr. mson's, next to the "Bull Head" rern, Charing Cross. Mrs. Thomson upposed to have been the wife of his dlord.-NEWTON. Addressed to Fairfax at the siege of chester. It was first printed, to gether with the two following sonnets, and the two to Cyriack Skinner, at the end of Phillips's "Life of Milton," 1694. -WARTON. 3 The English Parliament held that the Scotch had broken their covenant by marching into England, led by Hamilton. O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand, (For what can war, but endless war still breed ?) } XVI. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL. 1652. CROMWELL, Our chief of men, who through a cloud Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough'd, Hast rear'd God's trophies, and his work pursued, And Worcester's 2 laureat wreath. Yet much remains Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains: 3 1 A small river near Preston, in Lancashire, where Cromwell defeated the Scots under the Duke of Hamilton in August, 1648. 2 Dunbar and Worcester were both fought September 3-one 1650, the othe 1651. 3 He alludes to the Presbyterian cler They tried to persuade Cromwell to the secular power against Sectaries. XVII. TO SIR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.' 1652. VANE, young in years, but in sage counsel old, The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms repell'd The drift of hollow states 2 hard to be spell'd, In all her equipage: besides to know Both spiritual pow'r and civil, what each means, The bounds of either sword to thee we owe : [done : XVIII. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT.3 AVENGE, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones ; Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones, This sonnet seems to have been written in behalf of the Independents gainst the Presbyterian hierarchy. Vane was the chief of the Independents, and therefore Milton's friend. He was a most eccentric character, a mixture of Che wildest fanaticism and good sense. He was beheaded after the Restoration, 1662.- From WARTON. 2 The States of Holland. 3 In 1665 the Duke of Savoy determined to make his reformed sub mas jects in Piedmont return to the Roman Forget not in thy book record their groans To Heav'n. Their martvr'd blood and ashes sow XIX. ON HIS BLINDNESS. WHEN I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need And post o'er land and ocean without rest; XX. TO MR. LAWRENCE.1 LAWRENCE, of virtuous father virtuous son, Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire, The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise XXI. TO CYRIAC SKINNER. 3 CYRIAC, whose grandsire 3 on the royal bench And what the Swede 1 intends, and what the French. Son of Henry Lawrence, Member for tfordshire, who was active in settling Protectorate on Cromwell. Milton's nd was the author of a work called f our Communion and Warre with gels," &c., 1646. 4to.-TODD. The West Wind. Lord Coke. Cyriac Skinner was the of William Skinner and Bridget, daughter of Lord Coke. He had been a pupil of Milton's, and was one of the principal members of Harrington's Political Club. 4 Charles Gustavus, King of Sweden, was then at war with Poland, and the French were fighting the Spaniards in the Netherlands. |