The Complete Poetry of John Milton by John Milton

sacred rites with impunity, Englishman; [5] / you shall suffer punishment for your contempt of religion. / And if ever you enter the starry citadels, / the only way open is the sad one through the flames.” / O how close you came to a calamitous truth / and only barely were your words deprived of their consequences, [10] / for he nearly ascended to the eternal regions, / a scorched ghost, whirled on high by the Tartarean 3 fire.
    (
Nov. 1626
?)
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    1 James’ denial of Purgatory is found in
A Premonition to All Most Mightie Monarches (Works
, [Harvard Univ. Press, 1918], p. 125).
    2 the Papacy; the Pope’s tiara is a triple crown. Milton thought both of the beast in Revelation and Daniel’s vision of the beast with great iron teeth and ten horns, which “shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,… and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces” (Dan. vii. 7, 23).
    3 Tartarus was the part of the underworld where punishment for sins was exacted.
In eandem
                    Quem modò Roma suis devoverat impia diris, 1
                      Et Styge damnarât Tænarioque sinu, 2
                    Hunc vice mutatâ jam tollere gestit ad astra,
                      Et cupit ad superos evehere usque Deos.
On the same
    Whom impious Rome had just marked out for her curses 1 / and condemned to the Styx and the Taenarian gulf, 2 / him, on the contrary, she now desires to lift to the stars / and wishes to elevate even to the higher Gods.
    (
Nov. 1626 ?
)
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    1 In addition to reimposing recusancy fines in Feb. 1605, James had banished all Roman Catholic priests in Feb. 1604.
    2 the infernal regions.
In inventorem Bombardæ
                    Japetionidem 1 laudavit cæca vetustas,
                      Qui tulit ætheream solis ab axe facem;
                    At mihi major erit, qui lurida creditur arma,
                      Et trifidum fulmen surripuisse Jovi. 2
On the inventor of Gunpowder
    Antiquity in blindness praised the son of Iapetus, 1 / who brought down celestial fire from the chariot of the sun, / but to me he will be greater who is believed to have stolen / the ghastly weapons and threeforked thunderbolt from Jove. 2
    (
Nov. 1626 ?
)
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    1 Prometheus.
    2 Compare the description of the Son after the War in Heaven in
PL
VI, 763-64.
In quintum Novembris
                    Jam pius extremâ veniens Jäcobus ab arcto
                    Teucrigenas populos, 1 latéque patentia regna
                    Albionum tenuit, jamque inviolabile fœdus
                    Sceptra Caledoniis conjunxerat Anglica Scotis:
    5
       5           Pacificusque novo felix divesque sedebat
                    In solio, occultique doli securus et hostis:
                    Cum ferus ignifluo regnans Acheronte tyrannus, 2
                    Eumenidum pater, æthereo vagus exul Olympo,
                    Forte per immensum terrarum erraverat orbem,
    10
       10         Dinumerans sceleris socios, vernasque fideles,
                    Participes regni post funera mœsta futuros;
                    Hic tempestates medio ciet aëre diras,
                    Illic unanimes odium struit inter amicos,
                    Armat et invictas in mutua viscera gentes;
    15
       15         Regnaque olivifera vertit florentia pace,
                    Et quoscunque videt puræ virtutis amantes,
                    Hos cupit adjicere imperio, fraudumque magister
                    Tentat inaccessum sceleri corrumpere pectus,
                    Insidiasque locat tacitas, cassesque latentes
    20
       20         Tendit, ut incautos rapiat, ceu Caspia