TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL MAY, 1652
On the Proposals of Certain Ministers at the Committee for Propagation of the Gospel Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud
Not of war only, but detractions rude, Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed,
And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 5 Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream,1 with blood of Scots imbrued,
And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud,
And Worcester's laureate wreath: yet much remains
To conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned than war:
arise, new foes Threatening to bind our souls with secular
Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw.4
ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old When all our fathers worshipped stocks
Forget not in thy book record their groans 5 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled Mother with infant down the rocks. Their
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyred blood and
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
near Preston, where Cromwell defeated the royalist Scots in Aug., 1648 2 Sept., 1650 3 Sept., 1651 Cf. Lycidas, ll. 113-131.
Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear
To outward view, of blemish or of spot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot; Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear Of sun or moon or star throughout the year, 5 Or man or woman. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?
The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied
In liberty's defence, my noble task, Of which all Europe talks from side to side. This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask
Content, though blind, had I no better guide.
1 the Pope (alluding to his triple crown) 2 The Puritans interpreted the biblical denunciations of Babylon as directed prophetically against the Catholic Church. 3 his ability to write conscious
In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 15 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men. Say first for Heaven hides nothing from
Thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell
And high disdain from sense of injured merit, That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along Innumerable force of Spirits armed, That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
All is not lost the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield, And what is else not to be overcome; That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee, and deify his power Who, from the terror of this arm, so late Doubted his empire 2- that were low indeed; That were an ignominy and shame beneath This downfall; since by fate the strength of gods
116 And this empyreal 3 substance cannot fail; Since, through experience of this great event, In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
1 continued endeavor 2 authority and power 3 divine, cf. 1. 138
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend From off the tossing of these fiery waves; There rest, if any rest can harbour there; 185 And, reassembling our afflicted powers, Consult how we may henceforth most offend 5 Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, How overcome this dire calamity, What reinforcement we may gain from hope, If not, what resolution from despair.”
Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, With head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides, Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge 196 As whom the fables name of monstrous size, Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, Briareos or Typhon,7 whom the den By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 200 Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream. Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam, The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 205 With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,
Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests 10 the sea, and wishèd morn delays. So stretched out huge in length the Arch- Fiend lay,
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and, rolled
In billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, 226 That felt unusual weight; till on dry land He lights if it were land that ever burned With solid, as the lake with liquid fire, And such appeared in hue, as when the force Of subterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side Of thundering Etna, whose combustible And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire, Sublimed3 with mineral fury, aid the winds, And leave a singèd bottom all involved 236 With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole
A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, 256 And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,' will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, The associates and co-partners of our loss, 265 Lie thus astonished 2 on the oblivious3 pool, And call them not to share with us their part In this unhappy mansion, or once more With rallied arms to try what may be yet Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell?" 270
So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub Thus answered: - "Leader of those armies bright
Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled,
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers -- heard so oft In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle when it raged, in all assaults Their surest signal they will soon resume New courage and revive, though now they lie Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, As we erewhile, astounded and amazed: 281 No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth!"
He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 285 Behind him cast. The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
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