Riches and realms; yet not for that a crown, Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights 460 To him who wears the regal diadem, When on his shoulders each man's burden lies; For therein stands the office of a king, His honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise, 458. yet not for that a crown,] I reject them, yet not for that reason because a crown, &c. and in setting forth the duty and office of a king, let the friends of the house of Stuart consider, whether he intended any compliment to the king then reigning. 458. Milton seems here to have had in his mind several parts of the King's soliloquy, in Shakespeare's Henry V. immediately before the battle of Agincourt, 465 βασιλειαν ήμων ενδοξον είναι δουλειαν ; "Know'st thou not, my son, that to be a king is to be a splendid slave?" And see Euripides, lon, 633. Dunster. 466. Yet he who reigns within himself, &c.] Such sentiments are inculcated not only by the philosophers, but also by the poets, as Hor. Od. ii. ii. 9. Latius regnes avidum domando and Sat. ii. vii. 83. Quisnam igitur liber? Sapiens; sibi qui imperiosus, &c. 466. Thus also Seneca, Thyest. 380. Mens regnum bona possidet. Dunster. Upon the king! &c. Compare also the Prince of Wales's address to the crown, 2 Henry IV. act iv. and the soliloquy in the beginning of the third act. Canst thou, O partial Sleep, give thy and realms, our poet has culled repose, &c. There are also many similar sentiments in the Hiero of Xenophon. And compare with the line, 473. But to guide nations &c.] In this speech concerning riches all the choicest, finest flowers out of the heathen poets and philosophers who have written upon these subjects; it is not so much their words, as their substance sublimated and improved: but When on his shoulder each man's here he soars above them, and burden lies, the observation of Antigonus to his son, recorded by Elian, Var. Hist. ii. 20. Ovx oioba, w Tai, THY nothing could have given him so complete an idea of a divine teacher, as the life and character of our blessed Saviour. Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king ; Or lawless passions in him which he serves. 481. Besides to give a kingdom &c.] So Hephæstion to those who transferred the kingdom of Sidon from themselves to another. Quint. Curt. iv. 1. Vos quidem macti virtute, inquit, estote, qui primi intellexistis, quanto majus esset, regnum fastidire quam accipere &c. Diocletian, Charles V. and others who have resigned the crown, were no doubt in our author's thoughts upon this occasion. For as Seneca says, Thyest. iii. 529. Habere regnum, casus est: virtus, dare. 481. Possibly Milton had here in his mind the famous Christina Queen of Sweden, who, after having reigned twenty-one years, resigned her crown to her cousin Charles Gustavus, when she was still a young woman, being only 470 475 480 thirty years old. Our author had before paid her considerable compliments. For I consider it most probable that the verses under Cromwell's picture sent to Christina are properly ascribed to Milton; and he also honours her with a most splendid panegyric in his Defensio secunda. In the words, to lay down far more magnunimous, than to assume, we may rather trace Milton to Macrobius than to Q. Curtius. He is speaking of Micithus, who was slave and whom he left the guardian of Anaxilaus, tyrant of Rhegium, of his sons and protector of the state. "Quid? quod duas virtutes, quæ inter nobiles quoque unicè claræ sunt, in uno video fuisse mancipio, imperium regendi peritiam, et imperium contemnendi magnanimitatem." Saturnal. i. 11. Dunster. Greater and nobler done, and to lay down 485 |