A Surly Republican

Regular followers of the Celtic Sage will know that he has a perverse regard for the writer John Milton (1608-74) whose 400th Birthday is being celebrated on the Tube (and elsewhere!) this year as part of the hugely successful and much imitated Poems on the Underground public arts programme.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/poems-on-underground.html

This is part of a year-long international celebration of his writings with exhibitions taking place from Cambridge to New York. The new series of Poems on the Underground features The Expulsion from Eden – the final lines from Paradise Lost, Book 12 by Milton, which is considered by many as one of the greatest poems written in the English language.

Four hundred years after John Milton's birth, the greatest poet and polemicist of the English Revolution still speaks to us loud and clear. Once disparaged by Samuel Johnson as "an acrimonious and surly republican" John Milton must be counted as one of the most significant writers and thinkers of all time. Indeed when you ask people which writer has given the most phrases to the English language most would automatically answer William Shakespeare but they would be wrong. Those who track such things (a man in the basement of a college in Oxford) reckon Shakespeare’s writings have given us roundly 229 English phrases whereas Milton’s writings have given us around 694 phrases ranging from “every cloud has a silver lining” to “Hobson’s Choice.” According to Gavin Alexander, lecturer in English at Cambridge University and fellow of Milton's alma mater, Christ's College, who has trawled the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for evidence, Milton is responsible for introducing some 630 words to the English language, making him the country's greatest neologist, ahead of Ben Jonson with 558, John Donne with 342 and Shakespeare with 229. Without the great poet there would be no liturgical, debauchery, besottedly, unhealthily, padlock, dismissive, terrific, embellishing, fragrance, didactic or love-lorn. And certainly no complacency.

Lines from Milton pepper the phrase and fable of our modern language: "darkness visible"; "eyeless in Gaza"; "all passion spent"; "pastures new"; "they also serve who only stand and wait"; "amid the blaze of noon". Milton's influence is enormous; his rhetorical range seldom rivalled - from the limpid pastoral of the opening of "Lycidas", via the thunderous "organ-music" of Paradise Lost or the white rage of his sonnet "Upon The Late Massacre in Piedmont", to the strange, broken psychodrama of "Samson Agonistes". In L'Allegro' Milton also 'tripped the light fantastic'. Our images of Hell, the devil and the fall of man have been irrevocably shaped by Milton's versions of them.



Great deals of his tracts were political and the Puritan Cause he espoused has not worn well in our memories. It failed as a political force in an England which has proved itself in history to be generally resistant to extremism. Eventually as a political creed it was exported on the Mayflower with the “Puritan Fathers” to America where its seeds fell on more fertile soil. In Ireland it is particularly reviled for the toxic mix of vicious anti-Catholicism and the brutal re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649 to defeat the Confederate rebellion which had controlled Ireland since 1641 and which was allied with the Royalist cause. The vicious Parliamentarian campaign is estimated to have resulted in the death or exile of about 15-20% of the Irish population and its legacy of death followed by the confiscation of land and the passing of draconian anti-catholic Penal Laws is remembered to this day. In vain can you argue to an Irish person that time was not on Cromwell’s side as he vainly tried to save England from a Third Civil War for there was a definite sectarian and racist overtone to the campaign spurred on by tales of Protestants massacred in the Irish Rebellion. Ireland lives with the results of Cromwell’s actions to this day.

Bur we must also remember that by attempting to establish the rights of the people to be represented and the independence and sovereignty of Parliament, the English Puritans laid the foundation for every modern democracy. No longer would an individual rule by Divine Right and not be accountable for his actions. Or as it was expressed in America there would be no Taxation without Representation.

It is odd then that for somebody caricatured as a dour Puritan that Milton wrote a musical masquerade, Comus, albeit on the virtue of chastity and tracts in favour of divorce and free speech. His speech “Areopagitica”, which was subsequently published as a polemical pamphlet was a condemnation of the licensing of printing presses under the Stuart Monarchy. It is a foundational text in the philosophy of the freedom of speech and is famously quoted in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution: Milton denounces censorship, and argues for toleration and the free expression of ideas. It is a tract which still resonates today in the world of the Internet and the Beijing Olympics. Indeed it is the basis for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.



First Amendment to the United States Constitution; (1791)
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

No doubt Milton would be tickled that this amendment is the reason Airports cannot stop Christian fundamentalists proselytising when you try to escape from an American airport but it is also perversely the reason why American states can’t outlaw pornography and why Americans take libel actions in London and not in their home country.

Thomas Hobson (1545–1631), was a real historical figure and he ran a thriving carrier and horse rental business in Cambridge, England, around the turn of the 17th century. Hobson rented horses mainly to Cambridge University students but refused to rent them out other than in their correct order. The choice his customers were given was 'this or none', i.e. Hobson's choice. The Spectator, No. 509, from 1712, explains how Hobson did business, which shows clearly how the phrase came into being:

"He lived in Cambridge, and observing that the Scholars rid hard, his manner was to keep a large Stable of Horses, ... when a Man came for a Horse, he was led into the Stable, where there was great Choice, but he obliged him to take the Horse which stood next to the Stable-Door; so that every Customer was alike well served according."

After his death in 1631 he was remembered in verse by John Milton in a jocular jape, saying "He had bin an immortall Carrier". That seems rather a strange thing to say just after he had died. Eighty six was a very good innings in the 17th century, but hardly immortality. The phrase was still well enough known in the 20th century for Hobson’s to be adopted then as Cockney rhyming slang for voice. The most celebrated application of Hobson's choice in the 20th century was Henry Ford's offer of the Model-T Ford in 'any colour so long as it's black'.

Here are some of the extracts from Milton’s works which give us some of these 630 Milton inspired English phrases;

Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 1.



How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year.
On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three (1631).

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
Arcades (1630-1634), line 68.

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy,
At a Solemn Music (c. 1637), line 1.

Where the bright seraphim in burning row
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.
At a Solemn Music.

Truth...never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth.
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), Introduction.

Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643)

For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.
Eikonoklastes (1649), 23.

Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war.
To the Lord General Cromwell (1652).

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
Lodged with me useless.
On His Blindness (1652).

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones
Forget not.
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont (1655).

In mirth that after no repenting draws.
To Cyriack Skinner, upon His Blindness (c. 1655).

But oh! as to embrace me she inclined,
I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.
On His Deceased Wife (c. 1658).

O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.
Ode on the Death of a fair Infant, dying of a Cough.

License they mean when they cry, Liberty!
For who loves that must first be wise and good.
On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises.

No war, or battle's sound
Was heard the world around.
The idle spear and shield were high up hung.
Hymn, stanza 4, line 53.

The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
Line 36. L’Allegro (1631)

And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Line 67. L’Allegro (1631)

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!
Line 61. Il Penseroso (1631)

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth.
Line 5. Comus (1634)

Was I deceived or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
Line 221. Comus (1634)
Origin of the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining.”



What hath night to do with sleep?
Line 122. Comus (1634)

That power
Which erring men call Chance.
Line 587. Comus (1634)

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.
Line 663. Comus (1634)

Love Virtue, she alone is free,
She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime;
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heav'n itself would stoop to her.
Line 1019. Comus (1634)

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. Areopagitica: (1644)

A man may be a heretic in the truth, and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy. Areopagitica: (1644)

Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books. Areopagitica: (1644)

• Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.

• Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

• Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.

• Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.


John Milton and his father's grave. St. Giles Cripplegate, City of London.

• Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself. Paradise Regained: Book IV, Line 327

• The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. Paradise Regained: Book IV, Lines 220-21.

• For what can war, but endless war, still breed?

• Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to my conscience, above all liberties. Areopagitica: (1644)

• Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.

• He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.

• He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

• He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.

• Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.

• Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.

• No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free. Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649).

• None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence.

• Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right.

• The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
Satan, Paradise Lost, Book I, Line 254-255

• The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.

• The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.

Who best
Bear his mild yoke, 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.
On His Blindness (1652).

• Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.

• Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinions in good men is but knowledge in the making.

• To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.


• True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves.

• Truth never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her birth.

• Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.

• When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.

• Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self. Areopagitica: (1644)

And finally, this is the one George W. Bush should have memorised when he was at Yale;

• • Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe. Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 648-49.