P. L. 7. 433-436:

From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays.

P. L. 7. 557-565:

Up he rode,

Followed with acclamation and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps that tuned
Angelic harmonies. The earth, the air

Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou heard'st)
The heavens and all the constellations rung,
The planets in their stations listening stood,
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.
Open, ye everlasting gates!" they sung.

P. L. 7. 594-599:

The harp

Had work and rested not, the solemn pipe
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
Choral or unison.

P. L. 8. 261-266:

About me round I saw Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these, Creatures that lived and moved, and walked or flew, Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled, With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.

P. L. 8. 513-520:

The earth

Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;

Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings

Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub,
Disporting, till the amorous bird of night
Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star
On his hill-top, to light the bridal lamp.

P. L. 11. 556–563:

He looked, and saw a spacious plain, whereon
Were tents of various hue; by some were herds
Of cattle grazing; others whence the sound
Of instruments that made melodious chime

Was heard, of harp and organ; and who moved
Their stops and chords was seen1; his volant touch
Instinct, through all proportions low and high
Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue.

19. P. R. 2. 354-365 (1671) :

Under the trees now tripped, now solemn stood
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades

1 The visionary organist is Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and organ" (Genesis 4. 21). Milton builds up from this slight Scriptural hint, by his technical knowledge of organplaying, a picture of the greatest complexity, yet accurate in every detail. The organist is evidently improvising, with volant, i. e., light, flying touch. Instinct does not necessarily mean “instinctively.” Milton probably has the Latin instinctus in mind and intends to express the divine inspiration which governs the musician's touch. The proportions, or mathematical relations of the music, are low and high not as differing in pitch but in complexity. Simple intervals or rhythms are naturally termed low. Conversely, the more complex proportions are high. Cf. the table in Morley, p. 38, and see above, Appendix I, p. 111, n. The word-order, "low and high," seems inconsistent with a conventional reference to variations of pitch. The organist chases his themes back and forth (transverse) through the intricate fugue structure, sounding them again and again (resonant). Milton's fugue was not, of course, of the construction which we find perfected in Bach. It was chiefly in strict canon. In the so-called unlimited fugue," considerable freedom of invention was possible. It was this style, as developed by Frescobaldi, that Milton probably had in mind.

With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,
And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since
Of fairy damsels met in forest wide
By knights of Logres, or of Lyones,

Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore.

And all the while harmonious airs were heard
Of chiming strings or charming pipes, and winds
Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned

From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.1

P. R. 4. 244-260:

See there the olive-grove of Academe,

Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird

Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;
There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound
Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites

To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls

His whispering stream; within the walls then view
The schools of ancient sages-his who bred
Great Alexander to subdue the world,

Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:

2 There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power

Of harmony, in tones and numbers 3 hit

By voice or hand; and various-measured verse,
Aeolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,

And his, who gave them breath, but higher sung,
Blind Melesigenes thence Homer called,

Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own.

1 The description of these tempting delights may have been suggested by Spenser's enchanted bower, F. Q. 2. 12. 70-71.

Milton connects the study of music most naturally with the schools of philosophy. His own theory of music was largely derived from those sources.

3 Tones and numbers are constrasted as representing the art and the theory of music. Both phases were prominent in the culture of ancient Greece. Possibly Milton also has in mind the contrast between variation of pitch (tones) and rhythm (numbers as the two elements in melody).

19. S. A. 206-209 (1671):

Immeasurable strength they might behold

In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other should, at least, have paired;
These two, proportioned ill, drove me transverse.1

1 A distinct musical metaphor is contained in these lines. They have usually been explained as a continuation of the metaphor of a ship occurring eight lines above. This explanation is based entirely on the words drove me transverse, which are compared with P. L. 4. 488. But the rest of the passage has no meaning when applied to a ship. On the other hand the word transverse is used in P. L. 11. 563 in a distinctly musical sense. This, with the reference to proportion, seems to indicate a musical meaning here. If the life of Samson is compared with a piece of music in which the harmony of the theme has been disturbed, the whole metaphor becomes clear. In the construction of this musical composition, strength, the dominant note, was immeasurable. Wisdom, which should have harmonized with it, was only moderate. Possibly Milton intended a pun on the word mean, which in music represents a middle note, completing a triad. If strength and wisdom could not harmonize, in the sense of a concord of two different notes, they should, at least, have paired, that is, sounded in unison. But, being proportioned ill, that is, incorrect in their relationship, they upset the harmony of the entire composition. It is by no means an unusual type of figure in Milton, for he is fond of playing upon the Platonic conception of the soul of man as a harmony. Cf. Shakespeare's "sweet bells jangled out of time and harsh."

APPENDIX II

MILTON'S FRIENDSHIP WITH HENRY LAWES,
THE COMPOSER

Sonnet XIII.

To my friend Mr. Henry Lawes.

Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song
First taught our English music how to span
Words with just note and accent, not to scan
With Midas' ears, committing short and long;
Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,
With praise enough for envy to look wan;

To after age thou shalt be writ the man
That with smooth air couldst humor best our tongue.
Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing
To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire,
That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn or story.
Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing,
Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

The allusions to Lawes in Comus:

But first I must put off

These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof,
And take the weeds and likeness of a swain
That to the service of this house belongs1;

1 Lines 84-88 of the Comus refer to Lawes' connection with the Earl of Bridgewater's family. As music-teacher he could be said to belong to the service of this house." The implied comparison with Apollo and Orpheus, whose music exerted a power even over the forces of Nature, is the highest compliment of which Milton is capable. A similar compliment is given in lines 494-496 (cf. also 623 ff.). The reference to "his madrigal" should be taken literally as denoting a style of music in which Lawes was well versed, not