APPENDIX I The most important Passages in Milton's Works, Illustrating his Knowledge of Music, arranged in chronological order, with comments. 1. Elegy 6. 39–46 (1626) : Auditurque chelys suspensa tapetia circum, Illa tuas saltem teneant spectacula Musas, Crede mihi, dum psallit ebur,1 comitataque plectrum Percipies tacitum per pectora serpere Phoebum, 2. Nativity Hymn 93-140 (1629): IX. When such music sweet Their hearts and ears did greet As never was by mortal finger strook, Divinely-warbled voice Answering the stringed noise, As all their souls in blissful rapture took : With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. 1 Dum psallit ebur. Not the dancing of ivory keys, as interpreted by Cowper and Masson, but rather the strokes of the plectrum, with which the lyre was often played. The Greek term for playing a stringed instrument with a plectrum was páλλew, as opposed to κρούειν, κρέκειν, πλήσσειν, " to play with the fingers,” and there is little doubt that in this instance psallit means the same. In any case, Milton would hardly introduce a contemporary keyed instrument, such as the virginal, into such classical surroundings. Kircher, Mus. Univ. 2. 4. 1 applies the name chelys to instruments X. Nature, that heard such sound Beneath the hollow round Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling,1 To think her part was done, And that her reign had here its last fulfilling : She knew such harmony alone Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier union. 2 XI. At last surrounds their sight A globe of circular light, That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed; And sworded Seraphim Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born Heir.3 of the viol family-Quam vulgo viola gamba vocant. But in this interpretation the ebur would again be meaningless. The chelys must be considered here in its classic significance, as an instrument of the lyre family. Milton probably has in mind the lute, which is to him the contemporary representative of the ancient lyre. Cf. Ad Leonoram 2. 6; C. 478. 1 Cf. De Sphaer. Con., below, Appendix IV, p. 134, 1. 19. 2 The implication is that the laws of nature would be unnecessary if this harmony between Heaven and Earth could only continue indefinitely. It alone can effect a true union, such as once existed, before Sin entered into the world. Cf. st. XIV; P. L. 10. 656-719; and Spenser, F. Q. 5. 2. 34 ff. Professor Cook, Trans. Conn. Acad. 15. 341, notes that at this point there seems to be no singing, but only harping." Such an interpretation is inconsistent with Milton's habit of using the harp only as an instrument of accompaniment. The word "quire " is here sufficient to suggest the song which the harps accompany. Moreover, there is nothing to indicate a cessation of the " divinelywarbled voice." The Cherubim and Seraphim, though not singing themselves, are accompanying the song of the rest of the angelic Such music (as 'tis said) Before was never made, XII. But when of old the Sons of Morning sung, While the Creator great His constellations set, And the well-balanced world on hinges hung; And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.1 XIII. host. Ring out, ye crystal spheres! Once bless our human ears, If ye have power to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time, And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow; 3 The comparison at the beginning of stanza XII implies that the song is still kept up. Cf. also "angelic symphony," 1. 132, and s. v. symphony (1) G. 1 See below, P. L. 7. 253 ff.; 275; 557 ff. 2 Cf. De Sphaer. Con. below, Appendix IV, p. 134, 1. 21. 8 The bass of Heaven's deep organ may possibly be interpreted literally, as Burnet would have it (Early Greek Philosophy, London, 1908, p. 351, n. 3), but it would seem that the bass is here not a following part but a leading one. Classical accounts of the musical scale of the heavens varied, the lowest notes being assigned to the furthest sphere by Nichomachus, and by Servius in his scholium on Virgil, Aen. 2. 255, and to that of the moon by Cicero and Martianus Capella. According to A. 72, and S. M. 23, Milton seems to conceive of the sphere-music as having its highest notes in Heaven. But he evidently concerned himself little with the exact details of the system, being attracted chiefly by its poetical and ethical possibilities. Here he seems to be thinking of the fundamental or most important tones as much as of actual bass notes. Himself an organist, he naturally makes an organ the centre of his universal music. It may be that he imagines Heaven's organ as sounding the “plainsong" to which the spheres add their " descant." Cf. the abandoned reading of C. 243 : And hold a counterpoint to all Heaven's har And with your ninefold harmony Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.1 For, if such holy song XIV. Enwrap our fancy long, Time will run back, and fetch the Age of Gold"; Will sicken soon and die, And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 3. The Passion 22-28 (1630): These latest scenes confine my roving verse, His godlike acts, and his temptations fierce, Of lute or viol still, more apt for mournful things. monies." Philo, De Somn. 1. 7. 37 calls Heaven the archetypum organum." 1 The notion of the angels singing in harmony with the music of the spheres seems to be Neo-Platonic. Philo hints at such a conception, De Somn. 1. 6-7. Ambrosius states it very clearly. See the passage quoted in Appendix V, p. 145. Cf. also Dante, Purg. 30. 92-93. 2 Cf. De Sphaer. Con. Appendix IV, p. 136, 1. 3. 66 3 Cremona's trump refers to Vida's Christiad. Warton (n. on p. 26) wrongly assumed that Milton considered this the finest Latin poem on a religious subject." The comparison with the trumpet implies merely a noisy, proclamatory style. It is significant, too, that Milton contrasts with Vida his own softer airs " and softer strings"; cf. similar contrasts of gentle sounds with those of the trumpet, P. L. 11. 713; H. 58 ff. Milton's general use of the trumpet shows clearly that its actual sound is not pleasant to his ears. See reff. in G., esp. P. L. 6. 69; P. R. 1. 19, and cf. his sarcastic comment on the trumpet of Salmasius," P. W. 1. 232. 4. Ad Patrem 17-29 (1630): Nec tu, vatis opus, divinum despice carmen, Ad Patrem 30-408: Nos etiam, patrium tunc cum repetemus Olympum, 1 Cf. P. L. 2. 552-555; V. Ex. 52; L'A. 149; Il P. 107-108. 2 Cf. A. 65-66; 68-69. › Here the Christian feelings of the Solemn Music are presented in pagan phraseology. 4 Cf. the allusion to Delphinus, De Sphaer. Con. Appendix IV, p. 134, 1. 2. 5 Cf. the allusion to Atlas, " panting and sweating under his burden," De Sphaer. Con. Appendix IV, p. 133, l. 26. |