The Complete Poetry of John Milton by John Milton Page A

the slaughtering pestilence, 11
                      To stand ‘twixt us and our deserved smart?
    70
       70         But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.
    XI
                    Then thou the mother of so sweet a child
                    Her false imagin’d loss cease to lament,
                    And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild;
                    Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
    75
       75         And render him with patience what he lent;
                      This if thou do he will an off-spring give, 12
                    That till the worlds last-end shall make thy name to live. 13
    (
Jan-Mar. 1628
)
----
    1 Anne, daughter of Milton’s sister Anne and Edward Phillips, was baptized Jan. 12, 1626, and was buried Jan. 22, 1628. The stanza employed here, like that of the induction to the
Nativity Ode
, is perhaps derived from Phineas Fletcher.
    2 the northeast wind who stole away the Athenian princess Orithyia.
    3 old age.
    4 “unaware” of the consequences.
    5 formerly.
    6 Compare
Lycidas
, 106.
    7 The primum mobile, which lay farthest away from the earth of all other spheres of heavenly bodies, imparted motion to each succeeding inner shell.
    8 the Giants, who waged war against Jove.
    9 Astraea, goddess of justice, the last of the divinities to forsake mankind at the beginning of the Bronze Age because of its impious and wicked conduct.
    10 ordained.
    11 the plague.
    12 an allusion to the imminent birth of another child; Milton’s niece Elizabeth was baptized on Apr. 9, 1628, at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields.
    13 Isa. lvi. 5: “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walks a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”
At a Vacation Exercise in the Colledge, part
Latin,
part
English.
The
Latin
speeches ended, the
English
thus began.
1
                    Hail native Language, that by sinews weak
                    Didst move my first endeavouring tongue to speak,
                    And mad’st imperfect words with childish trips,
                    Half unpronounc’t, slide through my infant-lips,
    5
       5           Driving dumb silence from the portal dore,
                    Where he had mutely sate two years before:
                    Here I salute thee and thy pardon ask
                    That now I use thee in my latter task:
                    Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee,
    10
       10         I know my tongue but little Grace can do thee:
                    Thou needst not be ambitious to be first,
                    Believe me I have thither packt the worst:
                    And, if it happen as I did forecast,
                    The daintiest dishes shall be serv’d up last.
    15
       15         I pray thee then deny me not thy aid
                    For this same small neglect that I have made:
                    But haste thee strait to do me once a Pleasure,
                    And from thy wardrope bring thy chiefest treasure;
                    Not those new fangled toys, and trimming slight
    20
       20         Which takes our late fantasticks with delight,
                    But cull those richest Robes, and gay’st attire
                    Which deepest Spirits, and choicest Wits desire:
                    I have some naked thoughts that rove about
                    And loudly knock to have their passage out;
    25
       25         And wearie of their place do only stay
                    Till thou hast deck’t them