ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY.
From his sixteenth year Milton had been wont to write freely in Latin verse, on miscellaneous poetic themes, sometimes expressing his thoughts on events of the day, and sometimes addressing letters to his friends on purely personal matters. From these Latin poems, which therefore in some sense belong to English literature, we obtain valuable insight into his course of life and his way of thinking. What Milton wrote in foreign languages is indispensable for the information it gives us about himself—its content is important; but as poetry implies a fusing of content and form into an artistic unity, if one of these elements is foreign, the result is nondescript and cannot be ranged under the head of English literature in the strict sense of the term.
It is in one of Milton’s own Latin pieces that we find our best commentary on the Hymn on the Nativity. The sixth Latin Elegy is an epistle to his intimate college friend, “Charles Diodăti making a stay in the country,” the last twelve lines of which may be freely translated as follows:—
But if you shall wish to know what I am doing,—if indeed you think it worth your while to know whether I am doing anything at all,—we are singing the peace-bringing king born of heavenly seed, and the happy ages promised in the sacred books, and the crying of the infant God lying in a manger under a poor roof, who dwells with his father in the realms above; and the starry sky, and the squadrons singing on high, and the gods suddenly driven away to their own fanes. Those gifts we have indeed given to the birthday of Christ; that first light brought them to me at dawn. Thee also they await sung to our native pipes; thou shalt be to me in lieu of a judge for me to read them to.
This means, of course, that the poet is composing a Christmas Hymn in his native language. We must note his age at this time,—twenty-one years: he is a student at Cambridge. The poem remains the great Christmas hymn in our literature. “The Ode on the Nativity,” says Professor Saintsbury, “is a test of the reader’s power to appreciate poetry.”
In four stanzas the poet speaks in his own person: he too must, with the wise men from the east, bring such gifts as he has, to offer to the Infant God. His offering is the humble ode which follows. We must take note of the change in the metric form which marks the transition from the introduction to the ode. In the stanzas of the former the lines all have five accents, except the last, which has six; while in the latter, four lines have three accents each, one has four, two have five, and one has six. Notice also the occasional hypermetric lines, such as line 47.
In connection with Milton’s Hymn, read Alfred Domett’s It was the calm and silent night.
[5. For so the holy sages once did sing.] See Par. Lost XII 324.
[6. our deadly forfeit should release.] Compare Par. Lost III 221, and see the idea of releasing a forfeit otherwise expressed in the Merchant of Venice IV 1 24.
[10. he wont.] This is the past tense of the verb wont, meaning to be accustomed. See the present, Par. Lost I 764, and the participle, I 332.
[15. thy sacred vein.] See vein in the same sense, Par. Lost VI 628.
[19. the Sun’s team.] Compare [Comus 95], and read the story of Phaëthon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses II 106.
[24. prevent them with thy humble ode.] See prevent in this sense, in Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar V 1 105, and in Psalm XXI 3.
[28. touched with hallowed fire.] See Acts II 3. On the meaning of secret, compare Par. Lost X 32.
[41. Pollute] is the participle, exactly equivalent to polluted.
[48. the turning sphere.] For poetical purposes Milton everywhere adopts the popular astronomy of his day, which was based on the ancient, i.e. the Ptolemaic, or geocentric system of the universe. Copernicus had already taught the modern, heliocentric theory of the solar system, and his innovations were not unknown to Milton, who, however, consistently adheres to the old conceptions. In Milton, therefore, we find the earth the centre of the visible universe, while the sun, the planets, and the fixed stars revolve about it in their several spheres. These spheres are nine in number, arranged concentrically, like the coats of an onion, about the earth, and, if of solid matter, are to be conceived as being of perfectly transparent crystal. Beginning with the innermost, they present themselves in the following order: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile. In Par. Lost III 481, the ninth sphere appears as “that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs the trepidation talked,” and the Primum Mobile, or the first moved, becomes the tenth and outermost of the series. The last two spheres contain no stars.
We see, then, what we must understand by the oft-recurring spheres in Milton’s poetry. In the line, Down through the turning sphere, however, the singular sphere is obviously used to mean the whole aggregate of spheres composing the starry universe.
[50. With turtle wing.] With the wing of a turtle-dove.
[56. The hooked chariot.] War chariots sometimes had scythes, or hooks, attached to their axles. See 2 Maccabees XIII 2.
[60. sovran.] Milton always uses this form in preference to sovereign.
[62. the Prince of Light.] Note the corresponding epithet applied to Satan, Par. Lost X 383.
[64. The winds, with wonder whist.] The word whist, originally an interjection, becomes an adjective, as here and in The Tempest I 2 378.
[66.] Make three syllables of Oceän, and make it rhyme with began.
[68. birds of calm.] The birds referred to are doubtless halcyons. Dr. Murray defines halcyon thus: “A bird of which the ancients fabled that it bred about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, and that it charmed the wind and waves so that the sea was specially calm during the period; usually identified with a species of kingfisher, hence a poetic name of this bird.”
[71. their precious influence.] The word influence is originally a term of astrology,—“a flowing in, or influent course, of the planets; their virtue infused into, or their course working on, inferior creatures” (Skeat, Etym. Dict.).
[73. For all the morning light.] As in Burns’s “We dare be poor for a’ that,” for meaning in spite of.
[74. Lucifer.] See Par. Lost VII 131-133.
[81. As], for as if.
[86. Or ere the point of dawn.] The two words or ere mean simply before, as in Hamlet I 2 147, “A little month, or ere those shoes were old.” The point of dawn imitates the French le point du jour.
[88. Full little thought they than.] Than is an ancient form of then, not wholly obsolete in Milton’s day.
[89. the mighty Pan.] The poet takes the point of view of the shepherds and uses the name of their special deity.
[95. by mortal finger strook.] Milton uses the three participle forms, strook, struck, and strucken.
[98. As all their souls in blissful rapture took.] The verb take has here the same meaning as in Hamlet I 1 163, “no fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm.” Thus also we say, a vaccination takes.
[103. Cynthia’s seat.] See [Penseroso 59], and Romeo and Juliet III 5 20.
[108.] Make the line rhyme properly, giving to union three syllables.
[112. The helmed cherubim.] See Genesis III 24.
[113. The sworded seraphim.] See Isaiah VI 2-6.
[116. With unexpressive notes], meaning beyond the power of human expression. So in [Lycidas 176]; Par. Lost V 595; and in As You Like It, “the fair, the chaste, and inexpressive she.”
[119. But when of old the Sons of Morning sung.] See Job XXXVIII 7.
[124. the weltering waves.] Compare [Lycidas 13].
[125. Ring out, ye crystal spheres.] See [note, line 48]. The elder poetry is full of the notion that the spheres in their revolutions made music, which human ears are too gross to hear. See Merchant of Venice V 1 50-65.
[136. speckled Vanity.] The leopard that confronts Dante in Canto I of Hell is beautiful with its dappled skin, but symbolizes vain glory.
[143. like glories wearing.] The adjective like means nothing without a complement, though the complement sometimes has to be supplied, as in this instance. Fully expressed the passage would be,—wearing glories like those of Truth and Justice. The like in such a case as this must be spoken with a fuller tone than when its construction is completely expressed.
[155. those ychained in sleep.] The poets, in order to gain a syllable, long continued to use the ancient participle prefix y. See yclept, [Allegro 12].
[157. With such a horrid clang.] See Exodus XIX.
[168. The Old Dragon.] See Revelation XII 9.
[173.] Stanzas XIX-XXVI announce the deposition and expulsion of the pagan deities, and the ruin of the ancient religions. In accordance with his custom of grouping selected proper names in abundance, thus giving vividness and concreteness to his story and sonority to his verse, the poet here illustrates the triumph of the new dispensation by citing the names of various gods from the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian mythologies.
[176. Apollo], the great god, whose oracle was at Delphi, or Delphos.
[179. spell], as in [Comus 853], and often.
[186. Genius.] A Latin word, signifying a tutelary or guardian spirit supposed to preside over a person or place. See [Lycidas 183], and [Penseroso 154].
[191. The Lars and Lemures.] In the Roman mythology these were the spirits of dead ancestors, worshipped or propitiated in families as having power for good or evil over the fortunes of their descendants.
[194. Affrights the flamens.] The Roman flamens were the priests of particular gods.
[195. the chill marble seems to sweat.] Many instances of this phenomenon are reported. Thus Cicero, in his De Divinatione, tells us: “It was reported to the senate that it had rained blood, that the river Atratus had even flowed with blood, and that the statues of the gods had sweat.”
[197. Peor and Baälim.] Syrian false gods. See Numbers XXV 3.
[199. that twice-battered god of Palestine.] See I Samuel V 2.
[200. mooned Ashtaroth.] See I Kings XI 33.
[203. The Lybic Hammon.] “Hammon had a famous temple in Africa, where he was adored under the symbolic figure of a ram.”
[204. their wounded Thammuz.] See Ezekiel VIII 14.
[205. sullen Moloch.] See Par. Lost I 392-396.
[210. the furnace blue.] Compare [Arcades 52].
[212. Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis.] Egyptian deities, the latter figured as having the head of a dog.
[213. Nor is Osiris seen.] Osiris was the principal god of the Egyptians, brother and husband of Isis. His highest function was as god of the Nile. He met his death at the hands of his brother Typhon, a deity of sterility, by whom he was torn into fourteen pieces. Thereupon a general lament was raised throughout Egypt. The bull Apis was regarded as the visible incarnation of Osiris.—Murray’s Manual of Mythology.
[215. the unshowered grass.] Remember, this was in Egypt.
[223. his dusky eyn.] This ancient plural of eye occurs several times in Shakespeare, as in As You Like It IV 3 50.
[240. Heaven’s youngest-teemed star.] Compare [Comus 175].
[241. Hath fixed her polished car.] Fix has its proper meaning, stopped. The star “came and stood over where the young child was.”