Did Milton Write a Bawdy Ditty?

NPR considers the possibility:

A little-known poem has been retrieved from the Oxford University archives, which appears to reveal a 17th century attempt to besmirch the reputation of John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. The poem is a bawdy ditty laden with sexual innuendo, and is labeled "by Milton." However, since Milton is best-known as a great religious and political polemicist, it hardly fits with the rest of his work -- and some academics believe the poem was actually the work of a jealous political rival.

The poem in question with more about it on HuffPo.

Herrick and Wilmot

For Robert Herrick, the samples include:

Delight in Disorder

To the Virgins That Make Much of Time

Corinna's Going a-Maying

Upon Julia's Clothes

~~~

Robert Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Could I but make my wishes  insolent 
And force some image of a false content?
But they like mee bashfull and humble growne
Hover att distance about Beautyes throne
There worship and admire and then they dye
Daring noe more Lay Hold of her than I. Reason to worth beares a submissive spirritt
But Fooles can bee familliar with merritt.
Who but that Blundring blockhead Phaeton
Could e're have thought to drive about the Sun.
Just such another durst make Love to you
Whom not ambition led but dullness drew,
Noe Am'rous thought would his dull heart incline
But he would have a passion, for 'twas fine
That, a new suite, and what hee next must say,
Runs in his Idle head the live Long day.
Hard hearted saint, since 'tis your will to Bee
Soe unrelenting pittiless to mee
Regardless of A Love soe many yeares
Preserv'd twix't Lingring hopes and awfull feares
Such feares in Lovers Breasts high vallue claimes
And such expiring martyrs feele in flames.
My hopes your selfe contriv'd with cruell care
Through gentle smiles to leade mee to despaire,
Tis some releife in my extreame distress
My rivall is Below your power to Bless.

More Rochester can be found here.

Some links to Herbert

Thanks to my friend Kia Penso, an ardent admirer of 17th Century English lyrics, we now have a link to all of George Herbert's The Temple. The Table of Contents is here. In an email, Kia recommended several poems, including Affliction (I), which a few of us were enthralled by the other day. Here's Kia's brief list, with links to the individual poems:

Affliction (i) "When first thou didst entice to thee my heart")

Church-Monuments

The Elixir

The Pulley

The Forerunner

The Holy Communion

The Temper (1)

The Flower

Another poem, quite long, entitled the Perirrhanterium, precedes the Temple and seems to offer the reader instructions on preparing to enter  it. The word [fr. Gk perirranth, to besprinkle] is rare : "an instrument used for sprinkling holy water, esp. upon the newly baptised, or the font used for such."

The relevance of Herbert in the context of Milton and the British Protestant imagination is clear. Take, for example, these two stanzas from The Holy Communion:

Before that sinne turn’d flesh to stone,

And all our lump to leaven;

A fervent sigh might well have blown

Our innocent earth to heaven.

For sure when Adam did not know

To sinne, or sinne to smother;

He might to heav’n from Paradise go,

As from one room t’another.

      
More on Herbert here. Many thanks to Kia, who blogs at Gall and Gumption.

Donne texts

For Wed., July 7, here are the Donne poems we'll be focusing on - you should be able to print these out if you wish.

A Sampler of 17th Century British Poets

Beginning July 7, as agreed, we'll be reading a few 17th Century British poets. Mussy has been looking at online resources and sent some links that will give us a head start. If you feel strongly about a poet or a poem, do share. Of course these are not exhaustive:

John Donne also here

Richard Lovelace

Sir John Suckling

Thomas Carew

George Herbert

Robert Herrick

Edmund Waller

Andrew Marvell

John Dryden: here  and Mac Flecknoe

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (Caveat lector: naughty words)

Any others? Here's one from Donne to set us in motion:

THE FLEA.

by John Donne

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, 

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;

    Yet this enjoys before it woo,

    And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;

    And this, alas! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,

And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.

    Though use make you apt to kill me,

    Let not to that self-murder added be,

    And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since

Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?

Wherein could this flea guilty be,

Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?

Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou

Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.

'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;

Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,

Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

Looking ahead to the 17th Century

After Horace, the plan is to look at a few 17th Century British poets, to expand our context for Milton. There are some resources on the Net -- this overview on Wikipedia, and this collection (scroll down) which includes fine samples from the Cavalier poets (Jonson, Herrick, Lovelace, Carew et al), and the "metaphysicals," (Donne, Herbert, Vaughn, Marvell, and more).

Most of the above lived and wrote before Milton published Paradise Lost. With the Restoration, other poets came to the scene, including John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and Famous Rake, and John Dryden. Good overview of Restoration Literature here (and of Restoration Comedy here.)

Got a 17th c. poem or poet you particularly want us to read? Let us know.

Lines on Milton

Three poets, in three distant ages born,

Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn.

The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd,

The next in majesty, in both the last:

The force of Nature could no farther go;

To make a third she join'd the former two.

John Dryden

Here's an article about Dryden's "crime" of fitting Paradise Lost into rhymed couplets, titling it The State of Innocence and Fall of Man, an Opera, Written in Heroic Verse. If JSTOR's walled garden approach to knowledge frustrates your desire to read the whole piece, let me know.

Worden on Milton, Marvell, and Nedham

Jutta forwarded this review of a book that attempts to read the literary and the political works of Milton, Marvell, and Nedham in relation to each other, and to the major political figures and events of their day.

The book, by Blair Worden, is Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England: John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Marchamont Nedham.

With regard to Milton, the blurb says:

In Milton's case we explore the profound effect on his outlook brought by the execution of King Charles I in 1649; his difficult and disillusioning relationship with the successive regimes of the Interregnum; and his attempt to come to terms, in his immortal poetry of the Restoration, with the failure of Puritan rule.

According to the reviewer:

In Worden's words, from the beginning, "Cromwell's government was divided ... between statesmen who hoped, and those who feared, that the inauguration of the protectorate would be the first step in a return to hereditary--though now Cromwellian--monarchy," and he succeeds admirably in conveying the sense of betrayal experienced by men like Milton, Marvell, and Nedham as the Cromwellian juggernaut gained ground.

A few pointers to Marvell:

Brief bios here, here, here, and here, complete older bio here.

Timeline

A nice collection of his poems

More

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard, but in 1660 the monarchy was restored to Charles II. Marvell eventually came to write several long and bitterly satirical verses against the corruption of the court. Although they circulated in manuscript form, and some found anonymous publication in print, they were too politically sensitive and thus dangerous to be published under his name until well after his death. He avoided punishment for his own cooperation with republicanism, while he helped convince the government of Charles II not to execute John Milton for his antimonarchical writings and revolutionary activities. The closeness of the relationship between the two former office mates is indicated by the fact that Marvell contributed an eloquent prefatory poem to the second edition of Milton's famous epic Paradise Lost. According to a biographer:

“

Skilled in the arts of self-preservation, he was not a toady.[9]

”

Marvell's remains, like those of Milton, Blake, and Shakespeare, will not be found in Westminster Abbey. His grave may be found in St. Giles in the Fields, London.