Transcript of 'Upon the excellently-learned John Milton An Epitaph' by Thomas Ellwood
Within this arch embalm'd doth ly.
One, whose high fame can never dy;
Milton, whose most ingenious pen.
Obliged has all learned men.
Great his undertakings were
(None greater of their kind)
Which sufficiently declare
The worth and greatness of his mind;
Mean adversaries he declin'd,
And battel with the cheifest joyn'd.
Not e'en the royal pourtraicture
Proudly could before him stand,
But fel and broke,
Not able (as it seems) t' indure
The heavy stroke
Of His Iconoclastes hand.
Thus the so fam'd Eikon Basilike
Became the trophy of his victory.
On his tryumphant chariot too did wait,
One who had long the crown of learning wore,
And of Renown had treasur'd up good store,
But never found an equal match before,
Which puff't him up, and made him too elate.
This was the great Salmasius, he whose name
Had tower'd so high upon the wing of ffame,
And never knew til now
What 'twas (alas!) to bow.
(ffor many a gallant captive (by the heel)
Had He in triumph, drag'd at's chariot-wheel)
But now is fain to stoop, and see the bough
Torn from his own, to deck another's brow.
This broke his heart: for (having lost his fame)
He dy'd, 'tis hard to say whether through greif or shame.
Thus great Salmasius, in his winding-sheet,
Lies prostrate at far greater Milton's feet;
Milton, in whom al brave indowments meet
The majesty of poesy he reviv'd,
The common road forsaking,
And, unto Helicon a new track making,
To write in measures without rime, contriv'd.
He knew the beauty of a verse wel-made
Doth in a just and due proportion ly
Of parts, true feet, right cadence, symphony
(A thing by vulgar poets, lightly weigh'd)
Not in the tinkling chime
Of an harsh and far-fetch't rime.
Two great examples of this kind he left,
(The nat'ral issue of his teeming brain)
Th' one shews how man of Eden was bereft;
In t' other man doth Paradise regain,
So far as naked notion can attain.
Nature in him a large ffoundation laid,
And he had also super-built thereon
A structure great indeed, and fair enough,
Of wel-prepar'd and finely polish't stuff,
Admir'd by al, but equalled by none.
So that of him it might be said
(And that most truly too)
Nature and art,
Had plaid their part,
As if they had a wager laid,
Which of them most for him should do.
His natural abilities
Were doubtless of the largest size;
And thereunto he surely had acquir'd
Learning, as much as could be wel desir'd:
More known his learning was not, than admir'd.
Profound his judgement was, and clear;
His apprehension of the highest strain;
His reason al before it down did bear,
So forcible, demonstrative and plain
It did appear.
Lofty ffancy, deep conceit,
Style concise and Language great
Rendered his discourse compleat,
On whatsoever Subject he did treat.
Invention never higher rose
In poetic strayns, or prose.
In tongues he so much skill had gott,
He might be call'd the polyglot.
Even they 'gainst whom he writ
Could not but admire his wit;
And were forced to confess
(ffor indeed it was in vain
To deny a thing so plain)
That their parts than his were less.
Unto him the Muses sent,
And that, too, not in complement
(ffor doubtless 'twas his due,
As al that knew him knew)
The title of most excellent,
Of which title may he rest
Now, and evermore, possest.
TE
