“Lawless Sway,” Pendulous Politics

Abstract

In the Examiner of 11 June 1815, exactly one week before Waterloo, Hazlitt reviewed a recent production of Milton’s ‘Comus,’ noting in the final paragraph that he did not find the masque equal to either the youthful classicism of ‘Lycidas’ or the mature morality of ‘Samson Agonistes.’ Then, without any transition whatsoever, what appeared to have been a concluding survey of the trajectory of Milton’s career gives way to an indignant declamation.

Amid the dark control of lawless sway

Ambitions, rivalry, fanatic hate

And various ills that shook the unsettled State,

The dauntless Bard pursued his studious way.

(Wordsworth, ‘[Sonnet on Milton]’)