Which he neglects the while, As from a nation vile, And turning to his men, Quoth our brave Henry then, Be not amazed. Yet have we well begun, Have ever to the sun, By fame been raised. And for myself (quoth he), Victor I will remain, Or on this earth lie slain, Never shall she sustain Loss to redeem me. 40 Poitiers and Cressy tell When most their pride did swell, Under our swords they fell, No less our skill is, Than when our grandsire-great, By many a warlike feat Lopp'd the French lilies. The Duke of York so dread Amongst his hench-men. 50 45 Arms were from shoulders sent, This while our noble king, Down the French host did ding, And many a deep wound lent, Bruised his helmet. Gloucester, that duke so good, With his brave brother; Clarence, in steel so bright, Scarce such another. Warwick in blood did wade, Oxford the foe invade, And cruel slaughter made, Still as they ran up; Suffolk his axe did ply, Beaumont and Willoughby, Bore them right doughtily, Ferrers and Fanhope. Upon Saint Crispin's day To England to carry; 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 SINCE there's no help, come let us kiss and part, Now if thou would'st, when all have given him over, MICHAEL DRAYTON. 5 10 JOHN MILTON 1608-1674 JOHN MILTON, the poet of Puritanism, was born in Bread Street, London, not far from the Mermaid Tavern, where Shakespeare and his friends held their merry meetings. His father was a scrivener; that is, a sort of lawyer. He was a Puritan, but not of the severe type of the Pilgrim Fathers, for he was devoted to music and employed one of the best artists in England to paint a portrait of his little son. Milton began his education at an early age and soon became a very hard-working student. "From the 12th year of my age,” he says, "I scarcely ever went to bed before midnight." While a mere boy he learned to read not only Greek and Latin, but Hebrew, French, and Italian. He spent seven years at Cambridge, and before he left the University he won the admiration of all his fellows for his beauty and purity of life - they called him "the lady of Christ's "— as well as for his learning and genius. He wrote a number of short poems while at college, the most notable of which is the Ode on the Morning of the Nativity. Milton had been destined for the church, but at Cambridge his Puritan views of church government grew so strong that he felt unable to place himself under the High Church bishops who were then supreme in England. So he returned to his father's house at Horton, a little village near Windsor, and spent the next five years in study and in writing poetry. He decided at this time to become a poet, a great poet even. "You ask what I am thinking of?" he wrote to a friend. Of immortality - I am pluming my wings and meditating flight." During these years at Horton he wrote L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, and some shorter poems. |