deeds, and such a long obligement upon the whole realm to your indefatigable virtues, I might be justly reckoned among the tardiest and the unwillingest of them that praise ye. 40 Nevertheless there being three principal things, without which all praising is but courtship and flattery, First, when that only is praised which is solidly worth praise: next, when greatest likelihoods are brought that such things are truly and really in those persons to whom they are ascribed: the other, when he who praises, by showing that such his actual persuasion is of whom he writes, can demonstrate that he flatters not; the former two of these I have heretofore endeavoured, rescuing the employment from him who went about to impair your merits with a trivial and malignant 50 encomium; the latter as belonging chiefly to mine own acquittal, that whom I so extolled I did not flatter, hath been reserved opportunely to this occasion. For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best covenant of his fidelity, and that his loyalest affection 37. obligement, in Modern English "obligation." 39. unwillingest. Chapter on Language. See 39. ye. The word "ye," used now only in poetry, is generally employed only as a nominative, as it is in AngloSaxon, but in the writings of Shakespeare and Milton it is used indifferently. The Revised Version uses it. It is the correct A.S. nominative. 44, 45. the other. We should say now "the third." Other, of course, correctly means the second of two. 48. endeavoured essayed, endeavoured to carry out. 48. him. Hall, Bishop of Norwich, who had given very cold praise to the Parliament in his "Defence of the Humble Remonstrance against the Frivolous and False Exceptions of Smectymnuus," published 1641. This reply led him into a controversy with Milton, who blamed him for overlooking the higher virtues of Parliament and giving praise to trivial matters. 48, 49. went about to, tried to find ways to. 49. malignant, seeking to belittle the power and influence of Parliament. The term was usually applied by the Puritans to the Royalists. 51. whom, (those) whom. One of Milton's ellipses. See Chapter on Language 55. loyalest, cf. unwillingest, 1. 39. and his hope waits on your proceedings. His highest praising is not flattery, and his plainest advice is a kind of praising: for though I should affirm and hold by argument, that it would fare better with truth, with learning, and the Commonwealth, if one of your published Orders, which I should 60 name, were called in; yet at the same time it could not but much redound to the lustre of your mild and equal government, whenas private persons are hereby animated to think ye better pleased with public advice, than other statists have been delighted heretofore with public flattery. And men will then see what difference there is between the magnanimity of a triennial Parliament, and that jealous haughtiness of prelates and Cabin Counsellors that usurped of late, whenas they shall observe ye in the midst of your victories and successes more gently brooking written exceptions against 70 56. waits, singular verb with two nominatives connected by "and." 60. one of your published Orders. The order for licensing printing was published in November, 1643. 63. whenas, that, seeing that. 64. statists, statesmen. 67. triennial Parliament. Not a Parliament lasting three years, but a Parliament to be called at least once in three years. The Long Parliament passed an Act in 1641 to this effect in order to make impossible the recurrence of another eleven years' interval like that between 1629 and 1640, when Charles ruled alone. The Triennial Bill, passed in 1694, enacted that no Parliament should last more than three. years. It was repealed in the year 1716. 68. prelates. The reference is to the Star Chamber and the a voted Order than other Courts, which had produced nothing worth memory but the weak ostentation of wealth, would have endured the least signified dislike at any sudden Proclamation If I should thus far presume upon the meek demeanour of your civil and gentle greatness, Lords and Commons, as what your published Order hath directly said, that to gainsay, I might defend myself with ease, if any should accuse me of being new or insolent, did they but know how much better I find ye esteem it to imitate the old and 80 elegant humanity of Greece, than the barbaric pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness. And out of those ages, to whose polite wisdom and letters we owe that we are not yet Goths and Jutlanders, I could name him who from his private house wrote that discourse to the Parliament of Athens, that persuades them to change the form of democracy which was then established. Such honour was done in those days to men who professed the study of wisdom and eloquence, not only in their own country, but in other lands, that cities and signiories heard them gladly, and with 90 great respect, if they had aught in public to admonish the 71. other courts, the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission. 81. Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness. An allusion to the rougher ceremonies and more barbaric revels of the Scandinavian and German tribes. 82. polite, polished (Greek, polis a city). Used like civil (l. 75. Latin civis a citizen). 83. Goths and Jutlanders, i.e., uncivilised barbarians, like the Goths, who destroyed the Roman power; or the Northmen who overran England and France. 83. him, Isokrates. endeavours 89. signiories. Land ruled by a "signor" or lord, a lordship. Milton spells it siniories, in keeping with its Italian pronunciation. |